About NGC 1663
NGC 1663 is a common cluster. It sits in the constellation Ori and shines at apparent magnitude 14.54.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Common cluster 19 EP
NGC 1663
RA 72.3481° · Dec 13.1511° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Star cluster +7
- In Orion's hunting ground +6
- Open cluster +3
- Faint fuzzy (mag > 13) +3
Total score 19
3 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Open cluster · +3
- In Orion's hunting ground · +6
- 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 14.5 it is far too faint for the eye: this one belongs to cameras and long exposures, over in Orion.
- 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 December — 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
- Ori
- dso type
- OCl
- mag
- 14.54
- name
- NGC 1663
- size arcmin
- 7.2
How to see it
Look for NGC 1663 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 14.54, it takes a larger telescope or a long-exposure image to capture.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 1663 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 1663 is a common cluster
NGC 1663 scores 19 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the common tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Open cluster, In Orion's hunting ground 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.