Brocchi's Cluster (Coathanger)

A distinctive asterism of ten stars resembling a coathanger, best viewed with binoculars or small telescopes at low power.

Asterism in Vulpecula. Magnitude 3.6.

Can you see it from Guyana?

From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 77° above the northern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 73° above the northern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 11 Jul, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.

What you'll see

How big, how bright, how far

Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.

What it is made of

Type
Asterism (chance alignment, not a true cluster)
Distance
Its stars lie between about 235 and 1,735 Lightyears away
True size
Not one object (stars at different distances)
Notable
A chance line-up: Gaia measures its stars at very different distances, and the Gaia DR3 cluster catalogue of Hunt & Reffert (2023) does not list it.

More deep-sky objects: Dumbbell Nebula (M27) · Ring Nebula (M57) · Veil Nebula (NGC 6960, 6992, etc.) · Wild Duck Cluster (M11) · Globular Cluster M15 · North America Nebula (NGC 7000)

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