M72 Observation Details
M72 Daily Motion
M72 will rise before twilight begins, at 20:32, and will reach 37° elevation by the time twilight commences at 01:16. It will reach its transit at 38° by 01:49 and gradually fade away as the night ends at 05:22, maintaining an elevation of around 18°.M72 will be visible until December, 11, 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.
M72 Visibility Timetable on July 31
M72 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 32.9% illuminated | 12:30 | -57° |
| M72 rise | 20:32 | |
| Sunset | 20:45 | 2° |
| Civil sunset | 21:17 | 8° |
| Astrosession begin | 22:36 | 21° |
| Moon Set | 23:37 | 29° |
| M72 transit | 01:49 | 38° |
| Astrosession end | 04:41 | 24° |
| Civil sunrise | 05:59 | 12° |
| Sunrise | 06:31 | 6° |
| M72 set | 07:05 |
Track M72 Position Throughout the Night
← Thu, 31 July 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M72 - Globular Cluster
M72 is a globular cluster located in the constellation Aquarius. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780 and later cataloged by Charles Messier. The cluster is known for its relatively low concentration of stars towards its center.
M72 spans about 106 light-years across and contains around 100,000 stars. The cluster is approximately 53,000 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 9.3, making it visible with a small telescope.
M72 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 M72
| Object name | M72 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M72 coordinates | 20.89109, -12.53706 |
| Center coordinates | 20.89109, -12.53706 |
M72 Passage Through Night
Current position of M72
| Time | 01:16 |
| Latitude | 39.9625 |
| Longitude | -83.0061 |
| M72 elevation | 37° |
| M72 Azimuth | -170° |
Annual motion of M72
| Date | Fri, 1 August 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 22:34 |
| Twighlight end | 04:40 |
| Twighlight duration | 6h 6m |
| Rise | 20:28 |
| Set | 07:01 |
| Elevation at transit | 38° |
| Transit time | 01:45 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 20h 53m 27s", Dec: -12° 32' 13s |
| Magnitude | 9 |
| Constellation | Aquarius |
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 M72 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.