The sky around Pyxis Globular Cluster at true scale, north up and east left, with stars to magnitude 8. The circles show the field of a low-power eyepiece and of 10×50 binoculars.
Pyxis Globular Cluster is a globular cluster in Pyxis, 119,000 light-years away
Pyxis Globular Cluster (Pyxis Cluster) is a globular cluster in the constellation Pyxis, 119,000 light-years away. It shines at magnitude 12.9 and spans 4′ of sky, about 138 light-years across. It is a telescope object, 6 inches or larger, and it is highest in the evening sky in March.
Globular cluster: a ball of 100,000 to a few million old stars packed into a sphere about 100 light-years across. About 160 orbit the Milky Way, most of them in the halo around its center.
Finding Pyxis Globular Cluster from Suhail
Pyxis Globular Cluster lies 6.2° north of Suhail, the magnitude 2.2 star. Three fingers held at arm's length cover about 5°.
Pyxis Globular Cluster is highest in the evening in March
The chart gives its height above the horizon at 9 pm through the year, from 60°N to 40°S. It can be seen from the whole southern hemisphere and north to about 53°N, and never sets south of 53°S.
Pyxis Globular Cluster is 119,000 light-years away
The light seen from Pyxis Globular Cluster tonight left it about 119,000 years ago. It ranks 74 of 78 by distance among the star clusters on Go Astronomy. Distance source: Baumgardt and Vasiliev 2021.
Objects within 6° of Pyxis Globular Cluster
No other Messier, Caldwell or Herschel 400 object lies within 6°.
