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Rare cluster 45 EP

NGC 2239

RA 97.9815° · Dec 4.9429° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges
45 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Bright enough for the unaided eye +14
  • Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
  • Star cluster +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Bright deep-sky object +6
Total score 45

5 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Bright deep-sky object · +6
  • Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
  • Bright enough for the unaided eye · +14

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

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 4.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Monoceros.
  • 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. ≈ 92.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).
  • Fastest probe ever. ≈ 8.3 million years even at the Parker Solar Probe's 192 km/s.

Properties

constellation
Mon
dist ly
5286.1588
dso type
Cl+N
mag
4.8
name
NGC 2239
radial velocity kms
34
redshift
0.0001
size arcmin
9.3

About NGC 2239

NGC 2239 is a rare cluster. It lies about 5,286.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Mon and shines at apparent magnitude 4.8.

A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.

How to see it

Look for NGC 2239 in the constellation Mon. At apparent magnitude 4.8, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 2239 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 2239 is a rare cluster

NGC 2239 scores 45 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 5 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Bright deep-sky object, Cluster still wrapped in its gas and Bright enough for the unaided eye — 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.