Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cepheus (Cep)  ·  Contains:  NGC 188  ·  The star 2 UMi
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NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !, Philippe Barraud
NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !
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NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !, Philippe Barraud
NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !

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Description

Discovered in Cepheus by john Herschel in 1831, this very old cluster "could be considered one of the most forgotten clusters of the night sky", write Stephen James O'Meara in The Caldwell Objects.
Indeed, it is situated in an area devoid of bright stars,  hardly visible to the naked eye, and close to the celestial pole (4° from Polaris), which is a complicated place for equatorial mounts.
Nevertheless, NGC 188 deserves our respect, with an age of 5 billion years.  It does not lie in a spiral arm of the Milky Way, but 1'800 light-years above the galactic plane.

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NGC 188, a very old and forgotten cluster !, Philippe Barraud