Star cluster
Ruprecht 145
Open star cluster · 794 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 | 770 pc (2.5 thousand ly) |
| Age | 794 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 98 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.25 |
| Metallicity [Fe/H] | -0.13 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 18h 50m 38.4s |
| Declination (J2000) | −18° 13′ 37″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Southern Hemisphere and north to latitude 72° N. South of latitude 72° S 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 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.