M69 by w:Hubble Space Telescope; 3.5′ view
|Observation data (w:J2000 epoch)|
|Right ascension||18h 31m 23.23s|
|Declination||-32° 20′ 52.7″|
|Distance||29.7 kly (9.1 kpc)|
|Apparent magnitude (V)||+8.31|
|Apparent dimensions (V)||9′.8|
|Mass||kg ( M)|
|Other designations||M69, NGC 6637, GCl 96|
Messier 69 (also known as M69 or NGC 6637) is a w:globular cluster in the w:constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by w:Charles Messier in August 31, w:1780, the same night he discovered M70. At the time, he was searching for an object described by LaCaille in 1751-2 and thought he had rediscovered it, but it is unclear if LaCaille actually described M69.
M69 is at a distance of about 29,700 w:light-years away from w:Earth and has a spatial radius of 42 light-years. It is a close neighbor of w:Globular Cluster M70, 1,800 light-years separating the two objects, and both these clusters lie close to the Galactic Center. It is one of the most metal-rich globular cluster known.