NGC 7006 is one of two prominent globular clusters in Delphinus. It was discovered on August 21, 1784 by William Herschel.
This globular is small and compact, with an apparent diameter of 6.3', looking more like a comet than most other globulars. It may be mistaken for a faint star in small instruments at low magnification. Walter Scott Houston claimed that, "Large telescopes may show it with a clumpy appearance, but I doubt it can be resolved in any amateur instruments." An 18-inch telescope at 400x can resolve the majority of the brighter stars to within about 10% of the cluster's center.
Most strikingly, this globular displays a hazy outer envelope of faint, unresolved stars, surrounding the partially resolved central region. It makes an interesting contrast with the other globular in Delphinus (NGC 6934) which can appear with a halo of resolved stars surrounding an unresolved central region.
One of the many distinguishing characteristics of this globular is that it lies much farther away than most: 135,400 light years from the Sun, and 126,500 light years from the Galactic Center. It is nearly 4 times farther away than M 15, and ten times farther away than Omega Centauri.
The stellar population of NGC 7006 displays a primarily red horizontal branch, with the color becoming primarily blue toward the cluster center. One possible origin for this behavior could be the effect of inner dynamical processes on the spatial distribution of hot stars.