NGC 3324 (Nebula and Cluster)
A young cluster in Carina with the glowing gas it lights, 1.6° north-west of the great Eta Carinae Nebula. The cluster is about 6 million years old.
Nebula and star cluster in Carina.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 24° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 28° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 27 Feb, 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
- Your eyes: Not visible to the eye. It lies 10.3° east of Aspidiske.
- 10x50 binoculars: A small misty patch with a few stars, low in the south.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): A few bright stars in a small glow; a UHC filter shows the edge of the gas. Low in the south.
- A camera: Tiny on camera: it needs 2,000 mm or more of focal length on a tracking mount. An H-alpha-sensitive (modified) camera brings out its red glow.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 4.8′, 15% of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Distance: 7,900 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 7,900 years ago.
- True size: 11 light-years across its catalogued outline; light crosses it in 11 years.
Apparent size from OpenNGC (Mattia Verga), CC-BY-SA-4.0.
What it is made of
- Type
- Emission nebula with a young cluster
- Mass
- About 380 times the Sun's mass, in the stars of its cluster NGC 3324
- Age
- About 6 million years (range 3.7 million years to 8.6 million years), the age of NGC 3324
- Notable
- The radiation of its massive blue-white stars has carved a cavity in the gas and dust around them.
What is in it, not measured:
- Ionised hydrogen: glows red where hot stars light it
- Helium and heavier gases: with traces of oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur
- Dust: in dark lanes
- Young hot stars: that light it
How we know: Distance from Gaia parallaxes of the stars of NGC 3324, the cluster inside it: Hunt & Reffert 2024, A&A 686, A42 (Gaia DR3 cluster catalogue, VizieR J/A+A/686/A42), retrieved 2026-10-21: NGC 3324 2,419 pc; statistical 7,831-7,949 ly (16th-84th percentile); Gaia DR3 parallax zero-point systematics (about 0.02 mas) add about 5%. True size: the apparent size times the distance (apparent size: OpenNGC (Mattia Verga, CC BY-SA 4.0), commit 4e2398a2). Mass: Hunt & Reffert 2024, A&A 686, A42 (Gaia DR3 cluster catalogue, VizieR J/A+A/686/A42), retrieved 2026-10-21, NGC 3324: total 383 ± 65 Suns.
More deep-sky objects: Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532) · NGC 3114 (Open Cluster) · NGC 3603 (Nebula and Cluster) · Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) · Running Chicken Nebula (IC 2944) · Jewel Box Cluster (NGC 4755)