Édouard Stephan discovered NGC 6030 = St XIII-84 on 17 Jun 1884. His position is accurate.

400/500mm - 17.5" (5/13/88): fairly faint, small, bright core, elongated SW-NE. Two mag 13 stars are 1.0' NNW and 2.5' N. Located between 5 Herculis (V = 5.1) 12' SW and mag 7.4 SAO 101890 14' NE.

600/800mm - 24" (6/22/17): at 375x; bright, fairly small, oval 4:3 or 3:2 SW-NE. Contains a high surface brightness core with a fainter elongated halo. A mag 12.5 star lies 1' NNW of center. LEDA 214444 lies 2.4' WSW. This (physical) companion appeared extremely or very faint, very small, round, 12"-15" diameter.

NGC 6030 is located 12' NE of 5.1-magnitude 5 Herculi. The core of AGC 2151 (Hercules Galaxy Cluster) lies ~40' ESE, though this galaxy is in the foreground.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb