About NGC 2074
NGC 2074 is a common cluster. It sits in the constellation Dor and shines at apparent magnitude 8.5.
A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Common cluster 19 EP
NGC 2074
RA 84.7649° · Dec -69.4981° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 2 badgesCommon 22 pts → Uncommon
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
- Star cluster +7
Total score 19
3 more points to reach Uncommon.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
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 8.5 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Dorado.
- 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 December — 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.
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
- Dor
- dso type
- Cl+N
- mag
- 8.5
- name
- NGC 2074
- size arcmin
- 4
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for NGC 2074 in the constellation Dor. At apparent magnitude 8.5, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 2074 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 2074 is a common cluster
NGC 2074 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 2 science badges — Star cluster and Cluster still wrapped in its gas — 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.