Ophiuchus Oph
Ophiuchus is one of the 88 constellations, covering 949 square degrees of the sky (11th largest). It is highest at midnight in June and best in the evening sky in July and August.
24 of its best-known objects have a page of their own here.
Facts
| Abbreviation | Oph |
|---|---|
| Size | 949 square degrees (11th largest of the 88; the full Moon covers about 0.2) |
| Middle (J2000) | 17h 18m, −5° |
| Highest at midnight | June (in the evening, around 8–10 pm: July and August) |
| How high | From India (about 20° N) its middle climbs to about 65° above the horizon; from 50° N, to about 35°. |
| Pages here | 24 objects |
Galaxies
1Nebulae
4Star clusters
7Planetary systems
1Stars
8Other objects
3Brightest NGC and IC objects
OpenNGC| Object | Type | Magnitude | Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| IC 4665 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 4.2 | 24.6′ |
| NGC 6633 (on the map) | Open star cluster | 4.6 | 12′ |
| M10 · NGC 6254 | Globular star cluster | 5 | 9.3′ |
| IC 4604 (rho Oph Nebula) (on the map) | Nebula | 5.1 | 60′ |
| M19 · NGC 6273 | Globular star cluster | 5.6 | 7.5′ |
| M14 · NGC 6402 | Globular star cluster | 5.7 | 9.9′ |
| M12 · NGC 6218 | Globular star cluster | 6.1 | 11.1′ |
| NGC 6235 (on the map) | Globular star cluster | 7.2 | 4.2′ |
| NGC 6356 (on the map) | Globular star cluster | 7.4 | 5.4′ |
| NGC 6284 (on the map) | Globular star cluster | 7.4 | 6.6′ |
| NGC 6572 (on the map) | Planetary nebula | 8.1 | 0.2′ |
| M9 · NGC 6333 | Globular star cluster | 8.4 | 6.9′ |
Smaller magnitudes are brighter; the faintest stars the eye sees are about 6. The full Moon is about 31′ across.
Data: IAU constellation boundaries (Roman 1987) · OpenNGC (Mattia Verga, CC BY-SA 4.0) · Data sources & credits