It was discovered on 21 May 1860 by Arthur von Auwers at Koenigsberg Observatory and was independently discovered by Norman Pogson on May 28 at Hartwell observatory.

[6] T Scorpii was the first nova ever observed in any type of star cluster.

[8] T Scorpii faded by more than 3 magnitudes in 26 days, which means it was a "fast nova".

Astronomers recognized the significance of this object and for at least seven years after its discovery they closely monitored M80's appearance, but the star was never seen again by 19th century observers.

[3] In 1995 Shara and Drissen announced that they had identified the quiescent nova using Hubble Space Telescope images,[9] however in 2010 Dieball et al. identified a different star as the quiescent nova, based on ultraviolet and X-ray observations.