About IC 1396
IC 1396 is a rare cluster. It lies about 3,059.6 light-years from Earth and sits in the constellation Cep.
A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Rare cluster 44 EP
IC 1396
RA 324.7401° · Dec 57.4891° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
- Big on the sky +5
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Total score 44
6 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
- Big on the sky · +5
- Coming towards us · +10
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Sense of scale
- In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Cepheus.
- 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 August — that's when to go looking.
Could we get there?
- Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.
Getting there
- Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 53.8 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 4.8 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
Properties
- constellation
- Cep
- dist ly
- 3059.6248
- dso type
- Cl+N
- name
- IC 1396
- radial velocity kms
- -14
- size arcmin
- 14
How to see it
Look for IC 1396 in the constellation Cep.
Like any astronomical target, IC 1396 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 1396 is a rare cluster
IC 1396 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cluster still wrapped in its gas, Never sets (northern circumpolar), Big on the sky and Coming towards us — 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.