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Uncommon cluster 27 EP

NGC 2112

RA 88.4384° · Dec 0.4108° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
27 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Star cluster +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • In Orion's hunting ground +6
  • Big on the sky +5
  • Open cluster +3
Total score 27

7 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Open cluster · +3
  • In Orion's hunting ground · +6
  • Big on the sky · +5

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

  • 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 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Orion.
  • Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
  • 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.

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 65.4 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

constellation
Ori
dist ly
3718.9966
dso type
OCl
mag
9.1
name
NGC 2112
radial velocity kms
31
redshift
0.0001
size arcmin
21

About NGC 2112

NGC 2112 is an uncommon cluster. It lies about 3,719 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori and shines at apparent magnitude 9.1.

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 2112 in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 9.1, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 2112 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 2112 is an uncommon cluster

NGC 2112 scores 27 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 7 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Open cluster, In Orion's hunting ground 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.