Messier 29 (also NGC 6913) is an open cluster in Cygnus, situated in the highly crowded area of the Milky Way near Gamma Cygni. Charles Messier discovered this cluster in 1764, and described it as a "group of 7 or 8 very small stars".
With an total visual magnitude of 7.1, this cluster can be seen in binoculars. In telescopes, lower powers are best. Messier 29 contains thirty stars concentrated into a 7' area. The brighter members form a "stubby dipper", and give the cluster a boxy appearance. Eight 9th- to 10th-magnitude stars form the main group, and a few more stars of similar brightness lie isolated to the east. Two pairs of 9th- to 10th-magnitude stars are situated 10' west and 10' south of the cluster.
M 29 is 6,000 light years distant. It is not a particularly large cluster, only 11 light years in diameter, but its five brightest members are all B0 giants, so the cluster's absolute magnitude is a very impressive -8.2: a luminosity of 160,000 suns. Moreover, M 29's starlight is rather strongly polarized by interstellar matter, which is apparently 1,000 times denser than average around M 29, and may absorb so much light that the cluster would be 3 magnitudes brighter if it were viewed "in the clear".
M 29 is part of the Cygnus OB1 association, and its age is estimated at 10 million years. The cluster is approaching us at 28 km/sec.