About NGC 3324
NGC 3324 is a rare cluster. It sits in the constellation Car and shines at apparent magnitude 6.7.
A star cluster still wrapped in the nebula that made it — newborn stars lighting up their own birth cloud.
Rare cluster 35 EP
NGC 3324
RA 159.3175° · Dec -58.6196° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas +12
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Bright deep-sky object +6
Total score 35
15 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Cluster still wrapped in its gas · +12
- Coming towards us · +10
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.
Find it in the sky
- How to spot it. At magnitude 6.7 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Carina.
- Southern sky. It rides the southern half of the sky — an easier target the further south you are.
- 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. The stars are blue-white and brand new; the gas around them glows red, ionised by their ultraviolet glare.
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
- Car
- dso type
- Cl+N
- mag
- 6.7
- name
- NGC 3324
- radial velocity kms
- -7
- size arcmin
- 4.8
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for NGC 3324 in the constellation Car. At apparent magnitude 6.7, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 3324 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 3324 is a rare cluster
NGC 3324 scores 35 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 15 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Bright deep-sky object, Cluster still wrapped in its gas 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.