M22 Observation Details
M22 Daily Motion
M22 will be visible throughout the entire night. It will rise at 00:26, just before twilight begins, and will be at 26° when twilight starts at 04:44. It will reach its transit at 26° at 04:58, and will fade away as twilight ends at 05:15, being at 26° elevation.M22 will be visible until January, 1, when it will move too close to the Sun. During this time, its proximity to the Sun will cause it to disappear from the night sky, making it unobservable for a while.
M22 Visibility Timetable on May 09
M22 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 87.4% illuminated | 17:00 | -74° |
| Astrosession begin | 22:21 | -22° |
| M22 rise | 00:26 | |
| Astrosession end | 04:35 | 26° |
| Moon Set | 04:45 | 26° |
| M22 transit | 04:58 | 26° |
| Civil sunrise | 05:52 | 25° |
| Sunrise | 06:23 | 23° |
| M22 set | 09:30 |
Track M22 Position Throughout the Night
← Fri, 9 May 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M22 - Sagittarius Cluster
The Sagittarius Cluster (M22) is a globular cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Abraham Ihle in 1665 and included in Messier's catalog in 1764. M22 is one of the brightest and closest globular clusters to Earth.
M22 spans about 97 light-years across and contains over 100,000 stars. The cluster is approximately 10,600 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 5.1, making it visible to the naked eye and easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope.
M22 Image Gallery
DSS Blue
DSS Red
DSS Near-Infrared
DSS Composite image
The photos are taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) under NASA contract, using data from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
Special thanks to the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the California Institute of Technology for their significant contributions.
Finder Chart for M22
| Object name | M22 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M22 coordinates | 18.60672, -23.90342 |
| Center coordinates | 18.60672, -23.90342 |
M22 Passage Through Night
Current position of M22
| Time | 04:44 |
| Latitude | 39.9625 |
| Longitude | -83.0061 |
| M22 elevation | 26° |
| M22 Azimuth | -176° |
Annual motion of M22
| Date | Sat, 10 May 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 22:18 |
| Twighlight end | 04:28 |
| Twighlight duration | 6h 10m |
| Rise | 00:22 |
| Set | 09:26 |
| Elevation at transit | 26° |
| Transit time | 04:54 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 18h 36m 24s", Dec: -23° 54' 12s |
| Magnitude | 6 |
| Constellation | Sagittarius |
The graph is structured with the vertical axis showing the hours of the day, ranging from 12 AM to 12 AM the next day, while the horizontal axis spans each day of the year.
The reddish shaded area indicates the periods when the M22 is above the horizon, visible to observers. The white line marks the times when the celestial object reaches its highest point in the sky each day, known as the transit.
Data Credits
The nebulae information on this page is sourced from the OpenNGC project, developed by Matteo Verga. OpenNGC provides detailed data on the NGC catalog, which is a valuable resource for exploring deep-sky objects such as nebulae.
For more details or to contribute to OpenNGC, visit the official GitHub repository: OpenNGC on GitHub.