M69 was discovered by Charles Messier and added to his catalog on August 31, 1780, the same night he found M70.

Globular cluster M69, similar to 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 Croatia (45°N), it is a difficult object.

The distance of M69, about 29,700 light years, is roughly the same as that of its apparent neighbor, M70 which is at about 29,400 light years. This indicates that these two globulars happen to be physically neighbored; their mutual distance can be calculated to be as small as about 1,800 light years. In contrast, the also apparently nearby situated globular M54 is about three times as distant.

M69 is only 7.1 arc minutes in diameter in long exposure photos, corresponding to roughly 61 light years at its 29,700 light years distance. Very deep photos show that it is somewhat more extended: 9.8 arc minutes, or linearly, about 85 light years. The visually bright compact core is less than half, only about 3'.