Caroline Herschel discovered NGC 6866 = H VII-59 = h2066 on 23 Jul 1783. William Herschel probably found the cluster on 16 Oct 1783 (before his sweeps). On 11 Sep 1790 (sweep 959) he rediscovered the cluster (unaware of the previous observations) and logged, "a very rich cl of L stars, considerably compressed, above 15' diam. By the size of the stars, it is situated among the milky way towards us." His position is accurate. Karl Harding found the cluster again in 1823, reported it to Johann Bode and it was listed as new (#8) in Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1827 (printed in 1824). John Herschel made the single observation on 21 Aug 1829: "a coarse rough cluster. Taken for VII. 59, but the place does not agree." His position is on the double star HJ 1478 = 10.3/10.9 at 2.2", which is situated 10' south of the cluster.

Brian Skiff found the Lund catalogue has a -10' error in declination, and this error may be carried over into over sources (misplotted on the Millennium Star Atlas).

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/7/91): about 100 stars in a 20'x10' region are visible at 100x. Appears rich and very appealing. The main string is very elongated roughly E-W and contains a brighter intersecting subgroup 8'x2' NW-SE of about 45 stars with a close triple star on the NW end consisting of a mag 10 star and two very faint companions. Two mag 10-10.5 stars are at the SE end of this string. The western end of the main string curves north into a nice semi-circle.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb