About NGC 3231
NGC 3231 is a trash cluster. It sits in the constellation UMa.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Trash cluster 14 EP
NGC 3231
RA 156.7410° · Dec 66.8152° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 3 badgesTrash 15 pts → Common
- Star cluster +7
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
- Open cluster +3
Total score 14
1 more point to reach Common.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Open cluster · +3
- Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
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
- 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
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Ursa Major.
- Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around February — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Open clusters look blue-white because they are young — their hottest, bluest stars have not had time to die yet.
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
- UMa
- dso type
- OCl
- name
- NGC 3231
How to see it
Look for NGC 3231 in the constellation UMa.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 3231 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 3231 is a trash cluster
NGC 3231 scores 14 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the trash tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 3 science badges — Star cluster, Open cluster and Never sets (northern circumpolar) — 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.