About NGC 5617
NGC 5617 is an uncommon cluster. It sits in the constellation Cen and shines at apparent magnitude 6.3.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Uncommon cluster 26 EP
NGC 5617
RA 217.4336° · Dec -60.7108° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Bright deep-sky object +6
- Open cluster +3
Total score 26
8 more points to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Bright deep-sky object · +6
- Open cluster · +3
- Coming towards us · +10
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
- How to spot it. At magnitude 6.3 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in 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.
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
- Cen
- dso type
- OCl
- mag
- 6.3
- name
- NGC 5617
- radial velocity kms
- -35
- size arcmin
- 5.1
How to see it
Look for NGC 5617 in the constellation Cen. At apparent magnitude 6.3, it is an easy target for binoculars.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 5617 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 5617 is an uncommon cluster
NGC 5617 scores 26 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 8 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Bright deep-sky object, Open 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.