Star cluster
BDSB 157
Open star cluster · 1.8 million years
An open cluster of stars born together from the same gas cloud in the Milky Way’s disc; the Galaxy’s tidal forces will disperse it within a few hundred million years. Position, distance, age and member count come from the MWSC catalogue; the total brightness is roughly estimated from the member count.
| Type | Star cluster |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Aquila |
| Distance | 5,549 pc (18.1 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.8 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 63 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 1.49 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 19h 26m 02.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +16° 19′ 48″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 74° S. North of latitude 74° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in July, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out 18 thousand years ago. At that time Homo sapiens was spreading out of Africa; there was no farming yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 321 million years.