About NGC 1579
NGC 1579 is an uncommon cluster. It lies about 1,802 light-years from Earth and sits in the constellation Per.
A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Uncommon cluster 30 EP
NGC 1579
RA 67.5575° · Dec 35.2694° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
- Star cluster +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
- Big on the sky +5
Total score 30
4 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
- Big on the sky · +5
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 Perseus.
- 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 November — 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. ≈ 31.7 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
- Fastest probe ever. ≈ 2.8 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.
Properties
- constellation
- Per
- dist ly
- 1801.9669
- dso type
- Cl+N
- name
- NGC 1579
- radial velocity kms
- 11
- redshift
- 0
- size arcmin
- 10.2
How to see it
Look for NGC 1579 in the constellation Per.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 1579 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 1579 is an uncommon cluster
NGC 1579 scores 30 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 4 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Cluster still wrapped in its gas and Big on the sky — 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.