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Rare cluster 35 EP

S Nor Cluster

RA 244.7108° · Dec -57.9346° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 6 badges
35 pts · Rare
Rare 50 pts → Epic
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Star cluster +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Bright deep-sky object +6
  • Big on the sky +5
  • Open cluster +3
Total score 35

15 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Bright deep-sky object · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Open cluster · +3
  • Big on the sky · +5

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

  • 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 5.4 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Norma.
  • 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 May — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Getting there

  • Aboard Voyager 1. ≈ 55.9 million years at Voyager 1's speed (17 km/s).

Properties

constellation
Nor
dist ly
3182.0098
dso type
OCl
mag
5.4
name
S Nor Cluster
named
yes
radial velocity kms
1
redshift
0
size arcmin
10.2

About S Nor Cluster

S Nor Cluster is a rare cluster. It lies about 3,182 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Nor and shines at apparent magnitude 5.4.

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 S Nor Cluster in the constellation Nor. At apparent magnitude 5.4, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, S Nor Cluster 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 S Nor Cluster is a rare cluster

S Nor Cluster 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 6 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Bright deep-sky object, Has a proper name, Open cluster and Big on the sky — 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.