Key facts
- Right ascension
- 08 00 01.0
- Declination
- −10 ° 46 ′ 12 ″
- Distance
- 12.7 ± 1.4 kly (3.88 ± 0.42 kpc )
- Apparent dimensions v
- 12 ′
- Radius
- 18.5 ly
- Estimated age
- 2.09 ± 0.14 Gyr
- Other designations
- Caldwell 54, Cr 170, Mel 80
- Constellation
- Monoceros
via Wikipedia infobox
~1 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Map showing the location of NGC 2506
NGC 2506 (also known as Caldwell 54) is a mildly-elongated open cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Monoceros, located at a distance of 12.7 kly from the Sun near the Galactic anti-center. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1791. The cluster lies around 10,000 ly from the Galactic Center and about 1,600 ly above the Galactic plane. It is of intermediate age, estimated at around two billion years. The cluster has an angular radius of 12′ and a core radius of 4.8′.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Q302799” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.