William Herschel discovered NGC 6874 = H VIII-86 = h2069 on 15 Sep 1792 (sweep 1027) and recorded "A coarsely sc. cl. of L st, of a rectangled triangular shape." JH reported (single sweep) "a coarse scattered cluster of about 60 stars. The largest (10m) taken." JH's position corresponds to a brightest 10th mag star on the east side of the group at 20 07 50.1 +38 14 27.

Brent Archinal notes the probable equivalence with Basel 6, although the Lynga RA is at least 1 cluster diameter west-northwest. RNGC misclassifies the number as nonexistent (Type 7). See Harold Corwin's comments.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/25/95): large, fairly rich and uniform triangular group. Consists of about 60 stars in a 10'x5' triangular region with the longer 10' base oriented NW-SE along the following side of the cluster. The brightest mag 10 star lies at the east end and most stars are between mag 12-13. Only stands out at low power due to large size.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb