Epic cluster 55 EP

NGC 6613

RA 274.9937° · Dec -17.1020° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 8 badges

55 pts · Epic

Epic 78 pts → Anomaly

Messier object +12
Coming towards us +10
Toward the galactic centre +8
Star cluster +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Bright deep-sky object +6
Open cluster +3
On the zodiac +3

Total score 55

23 more points to reach Anomaly.

Badges

Star cluster · +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Messier object · +12
Bright deep-sky object · +6
Open cluster · +3
Toward the galactic centre · +8
On the zodiac · +3
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M18.

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 6.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Sagittarius.
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 June — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

constellation: Sgr
dist ly: 5096.1875
dso type: OCl
mag: 6.9
messier: yes
messier number: 018
name: NGC 6613
radial velocity kms: -14
size arcmin: 6

Nearby objects

About NGC 6613

NGC 6613 is an epic cluster. It lies about 5,096.2 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 6.9.

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 NGC 6613 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 6.9, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 6613 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 6613 is an epic cluster

NGC 6613 scores 55 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the epic tier. Another 23 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 8 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Open cluster, Toward the galactic centre, On the zodiac 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.