Approximately 5000 light-years distant, M11 is one of the richest and most compact open clusters, with nearly 3000 stars concentrated in a region only twenty light-years across, many of which are upper Main Sequence blue giants, or more highly evolved yellow and red giants. As a result, an observer in the center of the cluster would see several hundred first magnitude stars scattered around the sky. Given the presence of Main Sequence stars up to spectral class B8, the age of the cluster is estimated at 250 million years, or only about 5% the age of our solar system. As is the case with many of the objects in Messier's catalog, M11 was first noticed (as a fuzzy patch in the sky) nearly a century earlier, in this case by German astronomer Gottfried Kirch, in 1681. William Derham was probably the first to see that it consisted of a cloud of faint stars, in 1733.

The second IC adds (per DeLisle Stewart) "very faint, very small, considerably extended 120 degrees, stellar nucleus".

M54 was formerly thought to be an outlying member of the Milky Way's globular clusters, at perhaps 60 thousand light years distance. Recent evidence, however, makes it probable that it is actually part of one of the Milky Way's nearest neighbors, the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy. If so, it is almost 90 thousand light years away, and 150 light years in diameter.

The second IC adds (per DeLisle Stewart) "not pretty large, round, but considerably faint, extremely small, stellar nucleus, with straight wisp at 40 degrees".

The second IC lists a corrected RA (per Howe and Bigourdan) of 18 53 09.

Per Dreyer, NGC 6745 (= Stephan's list X(#38), 1860 RA 18 57 07, NPD 49 27.3) is "very faint, slightly extended north and south". The position precesses to RA 19 01 42.0, Dec +40 44 41, dead center on the galaxy, and the description is also appropriate, so the identification is certain. NGC 6745 and its "companion" collided about ten million years ago (this is determined by the ages of the stars created by the collision; some of the brighter ones are already dying, and their properties correspond to stars with lifetimes of about ten million years). Dynamical studies indicate that the smaller galaxy approached the larger one from the lower right, swung around it and collided with its tidally distorted outline. In the process, clouds of gas and dust in each galaxy slammed into similar clouds in the other, resulting in shock-wave formation of large numbers of stars, and most notably large numbers of hot, bright stars which make up the knots of bright stars on the left and upper side of NGC 6745 (the collisional region being so bright that it has its own PGC listing). Despite their collision, the two galaxies are unlikely to merge, as the smaller one appears to be moving away from the larger one at close to a thousand km/sec (data are scant, but there is an NED reference to the difference in velocity). Based on its recessional velocity of 4545 km/sec, NGC 6745 is about 200 million light years away. Given that and its apparent size of 1.4 by 0.5 arcmin (counting the extension referred to as PGC 200362), it is about 85 thousand light years across. Its "companion", PGC 200361, is about 0.3 by 0.2 arcmin, which corresponds to about 20 thousand light years across.

Per Dreyer, NGC 6749 (= John Herschel's GC 4466, 1860 RA 18 57 57, NPD 88 25.2) is a "cluster, large, a little compressed, stars large and small". The position precesses to RA 19 05 02.0, Dec +01 47 12, about 7 arcmin southwest of the cluster, but there is nothing similar nearby, so the description makes the identification certain. The cluster is about 26 thousand light years from the Sun. Given that and its apparent size of about 6 arcmin, it is about 45 light years across. Compared to many other globulars, NGC 6749 is sparsely populated; as a result, it is also cataloged as a rich open cluster. Which appellation is more accurate depends upon the nature of its stellar content. If it consists of metal-poor stars the best part of 12 billion years old, it would be more appropriate to call it a globular cluster. If it contains metal-rich stars of considerably younger origin, it would be an open (or "galactic") cluster. Which is correct is probably known, but a quick survey of the literature does not reveal the answer; so I will have to leave that question for a later iteration of this page.