Messier 29

Discovered on July 29, 1764 by Charles Messier.

Messier: M29.

July 29, 1764. 29. 20h 15m 38s (303d 54' 29") +37d 11' 57"
A cluster of 7 or 8 very small stars, which are below Gamma Cygni, which one sees with an ordinary telescope of 3.5-foot [FL] in the form of a nebula. Its position determined from Gamma Cygni. Reported on chart of the Comet of 1779.

[Mem. Acad. for 1771, p. 446 (first Messier catalog)]
In the night of July 29 to 30, 1764, I have discovered a cluster of six or seven very small stars which are below Gamma Cygni, & which one sees with an ordinary [non-achromatic] refractor of 3 feet & a half [FL] in the form of a nebula. I have compared this cluster with the star Gamma, & I have determined its position in right ascension as 303d 54' 29", & its declination of 37d 11' 57" north.
[p. 457] 1764.Jul.29. RA: 303.54.29. Dec: 37.11.57.B. Cluster of six or seven very small stars, situated below the star Gamma Cygni.

Bode: Bode 69.

A star cluster.
On December 5 [1774], I saw in Cygnus, south of the star Gamma at the breast, a nebulous star cluster, and in the same night in Cassiopeia a similar cluster with the stars Zeta and Lambda at the head west of it in an obtuse-angled triangle.

Caroline Herschel: No. 6.

No. 6
Apl 6th [17]83. About 1 deg under Gamma Cygni; in my telescope 5 small stars thus [diagram]. My Brother looked at them with the 7 ft and counted 12. It is not in Mess. catalogue.
[Position and drawing indicate that actually, this is almost certainly M29, according to Hoskin (2005) - hf]

William Herschel

[Unpublished Observations of Messier's Nebulae and Clusters. Scientific Papers, Vol. 2, p. 653]
1794, October 27. Is not sufficiently marked in the heavens to deserve notice, as 7 or 8 small [faint] stars together are so frequent about this part of the heavens that one might find them by hundreds.

John Herschel (1833): h 2078.

h 2078 = M29.
Sweep 200 (August 6, 1829)
RA 20h 17m 45.5s, NPD 52d 1' 48" (1830.0) [Right Ascension and North Polar Distance]
A coarse cluster of 8 large stars (10m), and a dozen or 20 smaller in a roundish form. (Milky Way.)

Smyth: DCCXLVII [747]. M29.

DCCXLVII. 29 M. Cygni.
AR 20h 18m 17s, Dec N 37d 59'.9
Position 299deg.5 (w 1), Distance 55".0 (w1)
Mean Epoch of Observation: 1835.48 [Jun 1835]
A neat but small cluster of stars at the root of the Swan's neck, and in the preceding branch of the Milky Way, not quite 2deg south of Gamma; and preceding 40 Cygni, a star of the 6th magnitude, by one degree just on the parallel. In the sp [south preceding, SW] portion are the two stars here estimated as double, of which A is 8, yellow; B 11, dusky. Messier discovered this in 1764; and though his description of it is very fair, his declination is very much out: worked up for my epoch it would be north 37d 26' 15". But one is only surprised that, with his confined methods and means, so much was accomplished.

John Herschel, General Catalogue: GC 4567.

GC 4567 = h 2078 = M29.
RA 20h 18m 51.9s, NPD 51d 56' 3.6" (1860.0) [Right Ascension and North Polar Distance]
Cl; P; lC; st L & S 6 observations by W. & J. Herschel.
Cluster; poor; little compressed; large [bright] and small [faint] stars.

Dreyer: NGC 6913.

NGC 6913 = GC 4567 = h 2078; M 29.
RA 20h 18m 52s, NPD 51d 56.1' (1860.0) [Right Ascension and North Polar Distance]
Cl, P, lC, st L and S; = M29
Cluster, poor, little compressed, large [bright] and small [faint] stars.