William Herschel discovered NGC 7006 = H I-52 = h2097 on 21 Aug 1784 (sweep 253) and recorded "pB, iR, easily resolvable, about 1' diam. Hazy, otherwise I suppose I might see the stars in it." On 16 Oct 1784 (sweep 294), he logged "vB, R, mbM, the brightness extending a good way, resolvable (see 253 sweep)." John Herschel made the single observation "B; R; gbM; 60". RA from working list, no transit being procured."

300/350mm - 13.1" (6/29/84): fairly faint, small, small bright nucleus, small fainter halo. Mottled and clumpy but not resolved at 360x.

400/500mm - 17.5" (8/5/94): moderately bright, small, 1.5' diameter containing a 1' core and a small halo. The core has a broad weak concentration with no nucleus. The halo is mottled but difficult to achieve clear resolution. Around the edges of the halo four or five mag 15.5 stars or fainter pop in and out of view. The easiest resolved star is just at the north edge of the halo, a close pair is at the east edge and a single star is at the southeast side. An easy pair of mag 14 foreground stars at 20" separation is off the south side 1.6' from the center. The interacting system UGC 11672 lies 43' E.

600/800mm - 24" (7/11/18): at 375x; bright, very bright mottled core with half-dozen very faint stars resolved around the edges of the halo. Three very faint to extremely faint galaxies lies to the southwest; CGCG 448-030 3.6' WSW, LEDA 1501723 6' WSW and CGCG 448-029 7.4' SW.

Notes by Steve Gottlieb