Sagittarius is a constellation that literally
swarms with interesting deep-sky objects. One of these is a
globular cluster known as M69. It is one of the smaller and
fainter globular clusters in the Messier catalog. In fact,
Messier originally missed this object when he looked for it in
1764 but later found it with a better telescope in 1780. This
cluster is believed to be about 55 light-years in diameter and
is located some 27,000 light-years from Earth. It can just
barely be seen on a dark night with a pair of 7x50 or 10x50
binoculars, as long the observer is not too far north.
