About NGC 6366
NGC 6366 is a rare cluster. It sits in the constellation Oph.
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.
Rare cluster 36 EP
NGC 6366
RA 261.9347° · Dec -5.0766° · openngc
Score breakdown
· 4 badgesRare 50 pts → Epic
- Globular cluster +14
- Coming towards us +10
- Star cluster +7
- Big on the sky +5
Total score 36
14 more points to reach Epic.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Globular cluster · +14
- Big on the sky · +5
- Coming towards us · +10
Trivia
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
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Ophiuchus.
- Seen from everywhere. It sits almost on the celestial equator, so it can be seen from essentially anywhere on Earth.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around June — 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.
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
- Oph
- dso type
- GCl
- name
- NGC 6366
- radial velocity kms
- -121
- size arcmin
- 13.8
How to see it
Look for NGC 6366 in the constellation Oph.
Like any astronomical target, NGC 6366 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 6366 is a rare cluster
NGC 6366 scores 36 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Globular cluster, 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.