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Uncommon cluster 31 EP

NGC 2419

RA 114.5331° · Dec 38.8800° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 3 badges
31 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Globular cluster +14
  • Coming towards us +10
  • Star cluster +7
Total score 31

3 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Globular cluster · +14
  • Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A globular cluster: hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball a few dozen light-years across, orbiting far out in the galaxy's halo.

Sense of scale

  • Sense of scale. Stand on a planet near its core and the night sky would blaze with thousands of stars brighter than Venus. There would be no true darkness.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 10.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, over in Lynx.
  • 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 January — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Globulars glow yellow-orange because they are ancient — around 12 billion years old, with every hot blue star long since burned out.

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
Lyn
dso type
GCl
mag
10.05
name
NGC 2419
radial velocity kms
-21
size arcmin
4.5

Nearby objects

About NGC 2419

NGC 2419 is an uncommon cluster. It sits in the constellation Lyn and shines at apparent magnitude 10.05.

A globular cluster: hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball a few dozen light-years across, orbiting far out in the galaxy's halo.

How to see it

Look for NGC 2419 in the constellation Lyn. At apparent magnitude 10.05, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 2419 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 2419 is an uncommon cluster

NGC 2419 scores 31 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 3 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 3 science badges — Star cluster, Globular 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.