M 69

M69, similar as its neighbor M70, is one of the smaller and fainter globular clusters in Messier's catalog. It can just be seen in a dark night with a 7x50 or 10x50 pair of binoculars, if the observing location is not too much north. However from Paris, Messier's observing place, it is a difficult object.

M69 is only 7.1 arc minutes in diameter in long exposure photos, corresponding to roughly 55 light years at its 27,000 light years distance. The visually bright compact core is less than half, only about 3'. Its stellar density is about average for a globular cluster. It is one of the metal-richest globulars, meaning that its stars show a relatively high abundance of elements heavier than Helium.

M69 is poor in variable stars: Shapley found not a single one at all, and the number of known variables is now still as low as 8, 2 of them being Mira-type variable stars with periods of about 200 days.

Right ascension	18 : 28.1 (hours : minutes)
Declination	-32 : 23 (degrees : minutes)
Distance	25.0 (light-years*10^3)
Visual magnitude	8.9