M29 is a rather coarse and less impressive cluster, situated in the highly crowded area of Milky Way near Gamma Cygni, at a distance of 4,00 ly.

This cluster can be seen in binoculars. In telescopes, lowest powers are best. The brightest stars of M29 form a "stubby dipper", as Mallas says it. The four brightest stars form a quadrilateral, and another three, a triangle north of them. A few fainter stars are around them, but the cluster appears quite isolated, especially in smaller telescopes. In photographs, a large number of very faint Milky Way background stars shows up.

Open cluster M29 is one of the original discoveries of Charles Messier, who cataloged it on July 29, 1764.