Star cluster
NGC 6494
Open star cluster · 331 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 | Sagittarius |
| Distance | 648 pc (2.1 thousand ly) |
| Age | 331 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 578 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.44 |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | 0.09 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 17h 56m 54.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | −19° 00′ 00″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 71° N. South of latitude 71° S it never sets. It stands highest at midnight in June, the best time to observe it.
Through a telescope from Earth
Light's journey
The light you see tonight set out around 89 BC. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 37 million years.