← Back to dex
Rare cluster 39 EP

NGC 2323

RA 105.6686° · Dec -8.3640° · openngc

Real photograph of NGC 2323 📷 Real photo
Chuck Ayoub (CC0)
Loading sky survey…
🌌 View in 3D star map
Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 6 badges
39 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Messier object +12
  • Star cluster +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Bright deep-sky object +6
  • Big on the sky +5
  • Open cluster +3
Total score 39

11 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
  • Big on the sky · +5

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M50.

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 5.9 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 January — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

constellation
Mon
dist ly
3257.6508
dso type
OCl
mag
5.9
messier
yes
messier number
050
name
NGC 2323
radial velocity kms
12
redshift
0
size arcmin
14.1

About NGC 2323

NGC 2323 is a rare cluster. It lies about 3,257.7 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Mon and shines at apparent magnitude 5.9.

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 2323 in the constellation Mon. At apparent magnitude 5.9, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 2323 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 2323 is a rare cluster

NGC 2323 scores 39 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 11 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 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.