About NGC 659
NGC 659 is a common cluster. It sits in the constellation Cas and shines at apparent magnitude 7.9.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Common cluster 20 EP
NGC 659
RA 26.0958° · Dec 60.6692° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Star cluster +7
- Bright deep-sky object +6
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
- Open cluster +3
Total score 20
2 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Open cluster · +3
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
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 7.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cassiopeia.
- Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around October — 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 New General Catalogue. Its NGC number comes from J. L. E. Dreyer's 1888 catalogue, itself built on decades of sky sweeps by William Herschel and his sister Caroline.
Properties
- constellation
- Cas
- dso type
- OCl
- mag
- 7.9
- name
- NGC 659
- size arcmin
- 4.2
How to see it
Look for NGC 659 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 7.9, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 659 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 NGC 659 is a common cluster
NGC 659 scores 20 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Bright deep-sky object, Open cluster and Never sets (northern circumpolar) — 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.