Palomar 7 is a loose globular cluster that falls within the central parts of Serpens Cauda, the western of the two parts that make up Serpens the Serpent. The cluster falls within the band of the Milky Way in the sky, and is therefore close to the plane of the Galaxy, in the general direction of its nucleus. Estinates of its distance vary a little, but it seems to lie some 17,600 light years inward across the disc of the Galaxy from the Solar System, within the bright mass of material that forms the Galaxy's central bulge.
This cluster has an apparent diameter of some eight arcminutes which (assuming a distance of about 17,600 light years) makes the entire structure some forty light years from edge to edge. Palomar 7 lacks the dense spherical form of many globular clusters: it is rated as Class XII on the Shapley-Sawyer scale, placing it among the least densely concentrated clusters of its kind.
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