William Herschel discovered NGC 6018 = H III-646 = h1942 on 19 Mar 1787 (sweep 720) and noted "vF, lE, S." NGC 6021, situated 5' north, was discovered 3 years earlier on 21 Mar 1784. IC 1150, discovered by Stephane Javelle on 10 Jul 1891, might be a duplicate observation, though his RA is off by 49 seconds of time.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/13/88): fairly faint, fairly small, elongated SW-NE, weak concentration. A mag 15 is 1' S. In a trio with NGC 6021 5.1' N and LEDA 214439 2.6' E.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb