Star cluster
IC 5146
Open star cluster · 1.0 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 | Cygnus |
| Distance | 770 pc (2.5 thousand ly) |
| Age | 1.0 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 18 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 1.15 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 21h 53m 29.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | +47° 15′ 54″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 43° S. North of latitude 43° N it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in August, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around 486 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 45 million years.