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A rusty-orange background is dotted with dark clouds. One large, dark cloud at upper right, two medium-sized dark clouds at the bottom; one left, the other right, of center. The upper left corner is blacked-out in a step pattern.
Hubble · Caldwell 100 · NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: Bo Reipurth (University of Hawaii)

lam Cen Nebula

Star cluster in Centaurus · 6,500 light-years

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TypeStar cluster
ConstellationCentaurus
Right ascension11h 35m 47s
Declination−63° 01′
Object distance6,500 light-years
Apparent size7.2′ (arc-minutes)
Approx. true diameter13.6 light-years across
Also known asC100 · IC 2944
Caldwell 100, popularly known as the lam Cen Nebula, is a star cluster (IC 2944) in Centaurus — a family of stars bound by gravity. It appears as number 100 in the Caldwell catalogue, Sir Patrick Moore's 1995 list of 109 bright deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers. It spans roughly 7.2 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 7.2′ wide on the sky, its real span is roughly 13.6 light-years — the difference is a measure of how far away it lies.

Observing lam Cen Nebula

lam Cen Nebula lies in the constellation Centaurus and is best placed in the evening sky around March. 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.

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Sources

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