[10] It is just south of the sun's position in mid-December, and northeast of Lambda Sagittarii (Kaus Borealis), the northernmost star of the "Teapot" asterism.

[13] Due to the large color spread of its red giant branch (RGB) sequence, akin to that in Omega Centauri, it became the object of intense scrutiny starting in 1977 with James E. Hesser et al.[3][14] M22 is one of the nearer globular clusters to Earth – at about 10,600 light-years away.

[15] From those latitudes due to its declination of nearly 24° south of the (celestial) equator, its daily path is low in the southern sky.

It thus appears less impressive to people in the temperate northern hemisphere than counterparts fairly near in angle (best viewed in the Summer night sky) such as M13 and M5.

M22 is one of only four globulars of our galaxy[c] known to contain a planetary nebula (an expanding, glowing gas swell from a massive star, often a red giant).