William Herschel discovered NGC 7086 = H VI-32 = h2124 on 21 Sep 1788 (sweep 860) and recorded "a beautiful cl of pretty compressed stars, 8 or 9' diam, considerably rich; nearly round." On sweep 384, JH logged "a rich fine cluster of st 11...16m; it fills field; but the most compressed part is about 6' in extent. The middle of the cluster taken, but no particular star fixed upon."

400/500mm - 17.5" (9/7/91): about 75 stars mag 10-14 in a 10' diameter. Fairly rich and contains six brighter stars. Most stars are located in a compact, rich, 5' group. A second group is to the north. A straight line of stars trails off to the SE with a mag 9.5 star at the end of the string. Includes several faint double stars. There are two large dark voids to the NE. This is a pretty cluster at low power using a 20mm Nagler.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb