It is positioned two degrees south of the star Pi Cygni[7] and around 9° east-northeast of Deneb.

[8] The cluster was discovered by Guillaume Le Gentil in 1749, then Charles Messier added it to his catalogue in 1764.

[7] It has a total integrated magnitude (brightness) of 4.6 and spans an angular diameter of 29 arcminutes[4] – about the size of the full Moon.

[2] This cluster has an estimated mass of 232 M☉ and a linear tidal radius of 8.6±1.8 pc.

HD 205117 is a probable eclipsing binary system with a period of 113.2 days that varies by 0.051 in visual magnitude.