Star cluster
NGC 5822
Open star cluster · 692 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 | Lupus |
| Distance | 794 pc (2.6 thousand ly) |
| Age | 692 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 1,817 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.31 |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | 0.05 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 15h 04m 28.2s |
| Declination (J2000) | −54° 23′ 24″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 36° N. South of latitude 36° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in May, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around 565 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 46 million years.