Star cluster
Collinder 421
Open star cluster · 1.2 billion 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 | Cygnus |
| Distance | 758 pc (2.5 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.2 billion years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 133 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.31 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 23m 08.9s |
| Declination (J2000) | +41° 41′ 42″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 48° S. North of latitude 48° 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 around 447 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 44 million years.