Right Ascension	17 : 53.9 (h:m)
Declination	-34 : 49 (deg:m)
Distance	0.8 (kly)
Visual Brightness	4.1 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	80.0 (arc min)
Discovered by	Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd Century

"M7 is a large and brilliant group, easily detected with the naked eye... the cluster is seen projected on a background of numerous faint and distant Milky Way stars." (Burnham).

This splendid cluster was known to Ptolemy who mentioned it about 130 AD, who described it as the "nebula following the sting of Scorpius". The description may also include M6 but this is uncertain. M7 was observed by Hodierna before 1654 who counted 30 stars.

M7 consists of about 80 stars brighter mag 10 in a field of about 1.3 degrees apparent diameter which at its distance of perhaps 800 light years corresponds to a linear extension of 18 or 20 light years.

Charles Messier observed May 23rd 1764 "A larger cluster of stars than the previous one." (M6).from his Catalogue

Main information courtesy S.E.D.S.