John Herschel discovered NGC 6854 = h3808 on 9 Jul 1834 and recorded "vF; S; R; glbM; 12"." His mean position (2 observations) is accurate.

600/800mm - 30" (11/5/10 - Coonabarabran, 264x): fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 3:2 NNW-SSE, 1.2'x0.8', broad concentration, brighter along the major axis. A mag 14 star lies 1.4' NE and PGC 161899 lies 35" N of this star. PGC 161899 very faint, extremely small, round, 6" diameter.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb