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Trash cluster 13 EP

IC 136

RA 23.5668° · Dec 30.5621° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 2 badges
13 pts · Trash
Trash 15 pts → Common
  • Star cluster +7
  • Loose stellar association +6
Total score 13

2 more points to reach Common.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Loose stellar association · +6

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.

Sense of scale

  • Sense of scale. It is already coming apart. Associations dissolve into the general population of the galaxy within tens of millions of years.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 11 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Triangulum.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — that's when to go looking.

How we came to know it

  • The Index Catalogue. The IC was the 1895 and 1908 supplement to the NGC — the first catalogue in history to be filled largely with objects found on photographic plates rather than by eye.

Properties

constellation
Tri
dso type
*Ass
mag
11.04
name
IC 136

Nearby objects

About IC 136

IC 136 is a trash cluster. It sits in the constellation Tri and shines at apparent magnitude 11.04.

A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.

How to see it

Look for IC 136 in the constellation Tri. At apparent magnitude 11.04, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, IC 136 is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.

Why IC 136 is a trash cluster

IC 136 scores 13 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 2 science badges — Star cluster and Loose stellar association — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.