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Anomaly cluster 80 EP

Hercules Globular Cluster

RA 250.4235° · Dec 36.4613° · openngc

Real photograph of Hercules Globular Cluster 📷 Real photo
Chuck Ayoub (CC0)
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Score breakdown

· 8 badges
80 pts · Anomaly
Anomaly 120 pts → Mythic
  • The Great Hercules Cluster +18
  • Globular cluster +14
  • Messier object +12
  • Coming towards us +10
  • Has a proper name +8
  • Star cluster +7
  • Bright deep-sky object +6
  • Big on the sky +5
Total score 80

40 more points to reach Mythic.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Messier object · +12
  • Bright deep-sky object · +6
  • Has a proper name · +8
  • Globular cluster · +14
  • Big on the sky · +5
  • Coming towards us · +10
  • The Great Hercules Cluster · +18

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M13.

What it actually is

  • What it actually is. A globular cluster: hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball a few dozen light-years across, orbiting far out in the galaxy's halo.

Sense of scale

  • Sense of scale. Stand on a planet near its core and the night sky would blaze with thousands of stars brighter than Venus. There would be no true darkness.

Find it in the sky

  • How to spot it. At magnitude 5.8 you can see it with your own eyes from a dark site, over in Hercules.
  • Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
  • Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around May — that's when to go looking.

Its true colour

  • Its true colour. Globulars glow yellow-orange because they are ancient — around 12 billion years old, with every hot blue star long since burned out.

What's in a name

  • Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.

Properties

constellation
Her
dso type
GCl
mag
5.8
messier
yes
messier number
013
name
Hercules Globular Cluster
named
yes
radial velocity kms
-244
size arcmin
16.5

Nearby objects

About Hercules Globular Cluster

Hercules Globular Cluster is an anomaly cluster. It sits in the constellation Her and shines at apparent magnitude 5.8.

A globular cluster: hundreds of thousands of stars packed into a ball a few dozen light-years across, orbiting far out in the galaxy's halo.

How to see it

Look for Hercules Globular Cluster in the constellation Her. At apparent magnitude 5.8, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.

Like any astronomical target, Hercules Globular 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 Hercules Globular Cluster is an anomaly cluster

Hercules Globular Cluster scores 80 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the anomaly tier. Another 40 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Star cluster, Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Has a proper name, Globular cluster, Big on the sky, Coming towards us and The Great Hercules Cluster — 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.