Butterfly Cluster
An open cluster near the Scorpion’s tail whose stars outline the wings of a butterfly.
Tonight from
Rise, highest point and set are worked out on your device for the place above.
What it is
- Kind of object
- Open star cluster
- Distance
- 1,600 light years
- Brightness
- Magnitude 4.2, visible to the eye from a dark site, easy in binoculars
- Size in the sky
- About half the width of the full Moon
- Constellation
- Scorpius
- Catalogue
- M 6, NGC 6405
Figures from OpenNGC, CC BY-SA 4.0; the SEDS Messier catalogue, via Wikipedia’s table of Messier objects, CC BY-SA 4.0. All sources
Near it in the sky
- Ptolemy’s ClusterAn open cluster in Scorpius, about three fingers away.
- ShaulaA blue-white subgiant in Scorpius, about three fingers away.
- Kaus AustralisA blue-white giant in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Lagoon NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, about a fist away.
- Trifid NebulaA nebula in Sagittarius, about a fist away.