Messier 56 (NGC 6779) is a globular cluster in Lyra, located about halfway between β Cyg (Albireo) and γ Lyr. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1779, and first resolved into stars by William Herschel around 1784.
Messier 56 lies in a nice low-power Milky Way field. At magnitude 8.3, this cluster is one of the fainter Messier globulars, especially lacking the bright core which most globulars have. Nevertheless, it is not too difficult to resolve, even at its rather large distance.
Only about the inner third of this great ball of stars, about 8.8' in diameter, is visible. While the NGC mentions "stars of 11th to 14th magnitude", more modern measurements have shown that the brightest stars in this cluster are of about 13th magnitude.
At its distance of 32,900 light-years, its angular diameter corresponds to a linear extent of about 85 light years. It contains only about a dozen known variable stars. M 56 is approaching us at the high velocity of 145 km/sec.