Herschel's Jewel Box
Star cluster in Crux · 6,400 light-years
🔭 Explore Herschel's Jewel Box in the 3D map →View Herschel's Jewel Box images →| Type | Star cluster |
|---|---|
| Constellation | Crux |
| Right ascension | 12h 53m 37s |
| Declination | −60° 21′ |
| Object distance | 6,400 light-years |
| Apparent size | 7.8′ (arc-minutes) |
| Approx. true diameter | 14.5 light-years across |
| Also known as | C94 · NGC 4755 · kappa Crucis Cluster |
Caldwell 94, popularly known as Herschel's Jewel Box, is a star cluster (NGC 4755) in Crux — a family of stars bound by gravity. It appears as number 94 in the Caldwell catalogue, Sir Patrick Moore's 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers. It spans roughly 7.8 arc-minutes on the sky. It is one of the showpiece objects Sir Patrick Moore chose for his Caldwell list of bright targets the Messier catalogue left out.
Although it appears about 7.8′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 14.5 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.
Observing Herschel's Jewel Box
Herschel's Jewel Box lies in the constellation Crux and is best placed in the evening sky around April. Its maximum altitude above the horizon depends on your latitude. It sits far enough south to be circumpolar from mid-southern latitudes, and never rises for most of the northern hemisphere.
See Herschel's Jewel Box in Universe Finder
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Sources
- Position, magnitude and angular size from the OpenNGC catalogue (Mattia Verga).
- Object identity cross-referenced with SIMBAD (CDS, Strasbourg).
- Image credits and the original observation source are linked with each photograph.
Related objects
- Pleiades — star cluster
- Hercules Cluster — star cluster
- Small Sgr Star Cloud — star cluster
- Messier 25 — star cluster
- Messier 103 — star cluster