Rare cluster 44 EP

NGC 1960

RA 84.0739° · Dec 34.1407° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges

44 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Messier object +12
Coming towards us +10
Star cluster +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Bright deep-sky object +6
Open cluster +3

Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Star cluster · +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Messier object · +12
Bright deep-sky object · +6
Open cluster · +3
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M36.

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

In perspective. Far away by human standards, yet still a local address inside the Milky Way's spiral arms.
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 6 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Auriga.
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.

Could we get there?

Verdict. Impossible with our current technology — and the next millennium of it.

Properties

constellation: Aur
dist ly: 3906.0599
dso type: OCl
mag: 6
messier: yes
messier number: 036
name: NGC 1960
radial velocity kms: -1
size arcmin: 7.2

Nearby objects

About NGC 1960

NGC 1960 is a rare cluster. It lies about 3,906.1 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Aur and shines at apparent magnitude 6.

An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.

How to see it

Look for NGC 1960 in the constellation Aur. At apparent magnitude 6, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 1960 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 1960 is a rare cluster

NGC 1960 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), Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Open cluster 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.