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Uncommon cluster 28 EP

NGC 6694

RA 281.3278° · Dec -9.3836° · openngc

Real photograph of NGC 6694 📷 Real photo
Chuck Ayoub (CC0)
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Score breakdown

· 4 badges
28 pts · Uncommon
Uncommon 34 pts → Rare
  • Messier object +12
  • Star cluster +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
  • Open cluster +3
Total score 28

6 more points to reach Rare.

Badges

  • Star cluster · +7
  • Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
  • Messier object · +12
  • Open cluster · +3

Trivia

Hard to believe

  • Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M26.

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 8.9 it is just past naked-eye reach — ordinary binoculars will pull it in, over in Scutum.
  • 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 July — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

constellation
Sct
dist ly
6224.3511
dso type
OCl
mag
8.87
messier
yes
messier number
026
name
NGC 6694
radial velocity kms
4
redshift
0
size arcmin
6

Nearby objects

About NGC 6694

NGC 6694 is an uncommon cluster. It lies about 6,224.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Sct and shines at apparent magnitude 8.87.

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 6694 in the constellation Sct. At apparent magnitude 8.87, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 6694 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 6694 is an uncommon cluster

NGC 6694 scores 28 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 6 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 4 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object and Open 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.