About NGC 5045
NGC 5045 is an uncommon cluster. It sits in the constellation Cen.
A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.
Uncommon cluster 28 EP
NGC 5045
RA 199.1958° · Dec -63.4167° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Loose stellar association +6
- Big on the sky +5
Total score 28
6 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Loose stellar association · +6
- Big on the sky · +5
- Coming towards us · +10
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. A stellar association: a sprawling family of hot young stars that shared a birthplace but were never gravitationally bound to each other.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. It is already coming apart. Associations dissolve into the general population of the galaxy within tens of millions of years.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Centaurus.
- Southern sky only. So far south it never rises for most of the northern hemisphere. To see it you'd have to travel to Chile, South Africa or Australia.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around April — that's when to go looking.
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
- Cen
- dso type
- *Ass
- name
- NGC 5045
- radial velocity kms
- -17
- size arcmin
- 20
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for NGC 5045 in the constellation Cen.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 5045 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 5045 is an uncommon cluster
NGC 5045 scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Loose stellar association, Big on the sky 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.