Rare cluster 49 EP

NGC 2682

RA 132.8339° · Dec 11.8119° · openngc

Loading sky survey…

🌌 View in 3D star map

Tonight’s visibility

Computing the sky for your location…

Score breakdown

· 7 badges

49 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Messier object +12
Bigger on the sky than the full Moon +12
Star cluster +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Bright deep-sky object +6
Open cluster +3
On the zodiac +3

Total score 49

1 more point 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
On the zodiac · +3
Bigger on the sky than the full Moon · +12

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M67.

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 6.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Cancer.
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 February — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

constellation: Cnc
dist ly: 2879.9647
dso type: OCl
mag: 6.9
messier: yes
messier number: 067
name: NGC 2682
radial velocity kms: 34
redshift: 0.0001
size arcmin: 33

Nearby objects

About NGC 2682

NGC 2682 is a rare cluster. It lies about 2,880 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cnc and shines at apparent magnitude 6.9.

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 2682 in the constellation Cnc. At apparent magnitude 6.9, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 2682 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 2682 is a rare cluster

NGC 2682 scores 49 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Open cluster, On the zodiac and Bigger on the sky than the full Moon — 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.