Star cluster
Wit 4
Open star cluster · 100 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 | 1,456 pc (4.7 thousand ly) |
| Age | 100 million years |
| Member stars (MWSC) | 217 |
| Reddening E(B−V) | 0.89 |
| Source | MWSC (Kharchenko et al. 2013) |
| Right ascension (J2000) | 20h 30m 12.6s |
| Declination (J2000) | +44° 20′ 06″ |
In the sky
Visible from the whole Northern Hemisphere and south to latitude 46° S. North of latitude 46° 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 4,749 years ago. At that time the first farming villages were being founded; there was no writing yet. At the speed of Voyager 1, the fastest craft leaving the Solar System (16.9 km per second), the trip would take 84 million years.