Right Ascension	05 : 24.5 (h:m)
Declination	-24 : 33 (deg:m)
Distance	41.1 (kly)
Visual Brightness	7.7 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	8.7 (arc min)
Discovered by	Pierre Mechain      1780

M79 is a beautiful globular cluster at a quite unusual location in the sky: Most globulars are grouped around the Galactic center, but this is one of the few which are situated in the other hemisphere, i.e. it is beyond us for hypothetical observers in the central stellar bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. It is little over 40,000 light years from us, but about 60,000 light years from the galactic center.

M79's apparent diameter of 8.7 minutes of arc corresponds to a linear extension of over 100 light years. This cluster is slightly elliptical, extended at position angle 45 deg, and has only 7 known variables. It is receding at about 200 km/sec.