M 79 Deep sky · Globular cluster in Lepus · M 79 · NGC 1904
M 79
A globular cluster in the winter sky, below Orion in Lepus — far from the summer Milky Way where most of them gather.
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- Type
- Globular cluster
- Designations
- M 79 · NGC 1904
- Constellation
- Lepus
- Apparent magnitude
- 8.6
- Apparent size
- 10′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 05h 24m · Dec −24° 31′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 3.2 times as wide. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 48°, around early June, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Wed 9 Dec 2026, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | 20:31 | 00:10 · 14° | 03:50 |
| New York EST | 19:38 | 00:05 · 25° | 04:32 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:19 | 01:16 · 64° | 07:12 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 17:57 | 01:07 · 81° | 08:17 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 15° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 80° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around early December, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by mid March it is highest in the early evening, and in early September not until the hours before dawn.
- How bright is it?
- Magnitude 8.6 in total, but that light is spread over 10′ of sky: on average 22.1 magnitudes per square arcsecond. Against a dark country sky that average stands out; a city’s glow drowns all but its brightest parts.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- Binoculars. At magnitude 8.6 it is past the eye, but a 50 mm pair under a dark sky reaches about magnitude 11.0.
Look for
Run a line from Arneb through Nihal and carry on about as far again. A telescope shows a small, round glow.
Science
It may not have formed in the Milky Way at all: some astronomers think it came in with a small galaxy the Milky Way swallowed.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 15°; from 35° north it climbs to 30°; from the equator it climbs to 65°; from 35° south it climbs to 80°.
Look for
Magnitude 8.6 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (4.1 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.6 short); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (2.5 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (4.0 to spare). Those limits are for a point of light; its light is spread over its whole size, so it needs some of that margin in hand. Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 2% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 16% of the field’s width.