{"id":509395,"date":"2026-06-20T09:42:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509395\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T09:42:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T09:42:06","slug":"the-sky-today-on-saturday-june-20-libras-ghost-cluster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509395\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sky Today on Saturday, June 20: Libra\u2019s Ghost Cluster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tThe globular cluster NGC 5897 glows in Libra the Balance, a ghostly twin to the more famous M5 in Serpens. \t\t\t<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Astrophotograph<\/p>\n

Looking for a sky event this week? Check out our full\u00a0Sky This Week<\/a>\u00a0column.\u00a0<\/p>\n

June 19: Dione crosses due north of Saturn<\/a><\/p>\n

Highest in the south around 10:30 P.M. local daylight time is the constellation Libra, whose brightest star is Beta (\u03b2) Librae, also called Zubeneschamali. Nearly 12\u00b0 below (south) of this star at that time is the constellation\u2019s brightest deep-sky object, globular cluster NGC 5897. If you want a closer signpost, just move about 5\u00b0 northeast of 3rd-magnitude Sigma (\u03c3) Lib.<\/p>\n

Glowing at mid-8th-magnitude, NGC 5897 is a wonderful target for any telescope, including smaller instruments. It\u2019s also a popular astrophotography target. NGC 5897 is rather large, spanning about 12\u201d, and has a loosely packed center. The cluster lies some 24,000 light-years away and is sometimes called the Ghost Globular for its resemblance to brighter M5 in Serpens.<\/p>\n

Sunrise: 5:31 A.M.
Sunset: 8:32 P.M.
Moonrise: 11:51 A.M.
Moonset: 12:11 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waxing crescent (42%)
*Times for sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset are given in local time from 40\u00b0 N 90\u00b0 W. The Moon\u2019s illumination is given at 10 P.M. local time from the same location.<\/p>\n

Alison Klesman\u00a0is senior editor of\u00a0Astronomy\u00a0magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in astronomy and has studied a variety of topics, from minor planets to supermassive black holes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List The globular cluster NGC 5897 glows in Libra the Balance, a ghostly twin to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,7882,82,44123],"class_list":["post-509395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-observing","tag-science","tag-sky-tonight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}