M23 Observation Details
M23 Daily Motion
M23 will rise before twilight begins, at 23:27, and will reach 29° elevation by the time twilight commences at 03:09. It will reach its transit at 31° by 04:19 and gradually fade away as the night ends at 05:15, maintaining an elevation of around 30°.M23 will be visible until September, 15, 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.
M23 Visibility Timetable on May 09
M23 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 87.4% illuminated | 17:00 | -67° |
| Astrosession begin | 22:21 | -12° |
| M23 rise | 23:27 | |
| M23 transit | 04:19 | 31° |
| Astrosession end | 04:35 | 31° |
| Moon Set | 04:45 | 31° |
| Civil sunrise | 05:52 | 27° |
| Sunrise | 06:23 | 24° |
| M23 set | 09:11 |
Track M23 Position Throughout the Night
← Fri, 9 May 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M23 - Open Cluster
M23 is an open cluster located in the constellation Sagittarius. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1764. The cluster contains a rich population of stars of various ages and types.
M23 spans about 20 light-years across and contains around 150 stars. The cluster is approximately 2,150 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 5.5, making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies and easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope.
M23 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 M23
| Object name | M23 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M23 coordinates | 17.95133, -18.98533 |
| Center coordinates | 17.95133, -18.98533 |
M23 Passage Through Night
Current position of M23
| Time | 03:09 |
| Latitude | 39.9625 |
| Longitude | -83.0061 |
| M23 elevation | 29° |
| M23 Azimuth | -161° |
Annual motion of M23
| Date | Sat, 10 May 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 22:18 |
| Twighlight end | 04:28 |
| Twighlight duration | 6h 10m |
| Rise | 23:23 |
| Set | 09:07 |
| Elevation at transit | 31° |
| Transit time | 04:15 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 17h 57m 04s", Dec: -18° 59' 07s |
| 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 M23 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.