About IC 1311
IC 1311 is an uncommon cluster. It sits in the constellation Cyg and shines at apparent magnitude 13.1.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Uncommon cluster 23 EP
IC 1311
RA 302.6993° · Dec 41.1739° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Open cluster +3
- Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) +3
Total score 23
11 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Open cluster · +3
- Coming towards us · +10
- Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) · +3
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. Gravity is not strong enough to hold it. Within a few hundred million years these siblings will be scattered right around the galaxy.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 13.1 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Cygnus.
- 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 July — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Open clusters look blue-white because they are young — their hottest, bluest stars have not had time to die yet.
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
- Cyg
- dso type
- OCl
- mag
- 13.1
- name
- IC 1311
- radial velocity kms
- -63
- size arcmin
- 6.3
How to see it
Look for IC 1311 in the constellation Cyg. At apparent magnitude 13.1, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, IC 1311 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 1311 is an uncommon cluster
IC 1311 scores 23 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 11 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Open cluster, Coming towards us and Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) — 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.