About lam Cen Nebula
lam Cen Nebula is an epic cluster. It sits in the constellation Cen and shines at apparent magnitude 4.5.
A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Epic cluster 57 EP
lam Cen Nebula
RA 173.9455° · Dec -63.0198° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 6 badgesEpic 78 pts → Anomaly
- Bright enough for the unaided eye +14
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
- Coming towards us +10
- Has a proper name +8
- Star cluster +7
- Bright deep-sky object +6
Total score 57
21 more points to reach Anomaly.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Has a proper name · +8
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
- Coming towards us · +10
- Bright enough for the unaided eye · +14
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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 4.5 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Centaurus.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around March — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. The stars are blue-white and brand new; the gas around them glows red, ionised by their ultraviolet glare.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
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
- Cen
- dso type
- Cl+N
- mag
- 4.5
- name
- lam Cen Nebula
- named
- yes
- radial velocity kms
- -1
- size arcmin
- 7.2
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for lam Cen Nebula in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 4.5, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, lam Cen Nebula 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 lam Cen Nebula is an epic cluster
lam Cen Nebula scores 57 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 21 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 6 science badges — Star cluster, Bright deep-sky object, Has a proper name, Cluster still wrapped in its gas, Coming towards us and Bright enough for the unaided eye — 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.