M4 Observation Details
M4 Daily Motion
M4 will rise at 06:28, during twilight, and will ascend to 3° by the time twilight ends at 06:46.M4 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.
M4 Visibility Timetable on December 22
Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| M4 transit | 10:52 | 24° |
| M4 set | 15:13 | |
| Astrosession begin | 18:48 | -38° |
| Moon Rise, 57% illuminated | 23:50 | -72° |
| Astrosession end | 06:13 | -2° |
| M4 rise | 06:28 | |
| Civil sunrise | 07:20 | 8° |
| Sunrise | 07:52 | 12° |
| Moon Set | 12:24 | 20° |
Track M4 Position Throughout the Night
← Sun, 22 December 2024 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M4 - Globular Cluster
M4 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Scorpius. It was discovered by Philippe Loys de Chéseaux in 1746 and included in Messier's catalog in 1764. M4 is one of the closest globular clusters to Earth.
M4 spans about 75 light-years across and contains tens of thousands of stars. The cluster is approximately 7,200 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 5.9, making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies and easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope.
M4 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 M4
| Object name | M4 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M4 coordinates | 16.39317, -26.52553 |
| Center coordinates | 16.39317, -26.52553 |
M4 Passage Through Night
Current position of M4
| Time | 00:43 |
| Latitude | 39.9625 |
| Longitude | -83.0061 |
| M4 elevation | -63° |
| M4 Azimuth | -69° |
Annual motion of M4
| Date | Mon, 23 December 2024 |
| Twighlight start | 18:44 |
| Twighlight end | 06:07 |
| Twighlight duration | 11h 23m |
| Rise | 06:24 |
| Set | 15:05 |
| Elevation at transit | 24° |
| Transit time | 10:44 |
| Equatorial coordinate | RA: 16h 23m 35s", Dec: -26° 31' 31s |
| Magnitude | 5 |
| Constellation | Scorpius |
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 M4 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.