Rare cluster 48 EP

NGC 7654

RA 351.2017° · Dec 61.5932° · openngc

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Score breakdown

· 7 badges

48 pts · Rare

Rare 50 pts → Epic

Messier object +12
Coming towards us +10
Star cluster +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) +6
Bright deep-sky object +6
Never sets (northern circumpolar) +4
Open cluster +3

Total score 48

2 more points to reach Epic.

Badges

Star cluster · +7
Distant (over 1,000 light-years) · +6
Messier object · +12
Bright deep-sky object · +6
Open cluster · +3
Never sets (northern circumpolar) · +4
Coming towards us · +10

Trivia

Hard to believe

Messier object. One of the 110 showpieces of the Messier list — catalogued as M52.

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 Cassiopeia.
Never sets. So far north that from Britain, Canada or northern Europe it never dips below the horizon — it is up every clear night of the year.
Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around September — that's when to go looking.

Could we get there?

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

Properties

constellation: Cas
dist ly: 5472.4161
dso type: OCl
mag: 6.9
messier: yes
messier number: 052
name: NGC 7654
radial velocity kms: -40
size arcmin: 9.9

Nearby objects

About NGC 7654

NGC 7654 is a rare cluster. It lies about 5,472.4 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Cas 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 7654 in the constellation Cas. At apparent magnitude 6.9, it is an easy target for binoculars.

Like any astronomical target, NGC 7654 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 7654 is a rare cluster

NGC 7654 scores 48 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the rare tier. Another 2 points would lift it into a rarer tier.

That score comes from 7 science badges — Star cluster, Distant (over 1,000 light-years), Messier object, Bright deep-sky object, Open cluster, Never sets (northern circumpolar) 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.