Rare cluster 44 EP

NGC 6681

RA 280.8027° · Dec -32.2919° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 5 badges

44 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Globular cluster +14
Messier object +12
Toward the galactic centre +8
Star cluster +7
On the zodiac +3

Total score 44

6 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Star cluster · +7
Messier object · +12
Globular cluster · +14
Toward the galactic centre · +8
On the zodiac · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M70.

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 9.1 you'll want a small backyard telescope, 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 July — 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

Messier's anti-list. Charles Messier was a comet hunter, and he compiled his famous catalogue in the 1770s and 80s purely as a list of fuzzy things that are NOT comets. History remembers the distractions and forgets the comets.

Properties

constellation: Sgr
dso type: GCl
mag: 9.06
messier: yes
messier number: 070
name: NGC 6681
radial velocity kms: 217
redshift: 0.0007
size arcmin: 6.6

Nearby objects

About NGC 6681

NGC 6681 is a rare cluster. It sits in the constellation Sgr and shines at apparent magnitude 9.06.

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 NGC 6681 in the constellation Sgr. At apparent magnitude 9.06, a small backyard telescope will bring it into view.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 6681 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 6681 is a rare cluster

NGC 6681 scores 44 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 5 science badges — Star cluster, Messier object, Globular cluster, Toward the galactic centre and On the zodiac — 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.