Globular cluster
M56 (M56)
In Lyra (Lyr) • Magnitude 8.3 • 8.8 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M56 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A moderately bright globular cluster in Lyra, discovered by Messier in 1779 — the very same year a nova was also spotted within it. Discovering a nova inside a cluster on the night of its first cataloguing was quite the coincidence, making M56 the site of a memorable double discovery.
M56 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M56, N 6779 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Constellation | Lyra (Lyr) |
| Right ascension | 19h 16m 37s |
| Declination | +30° 11' 24" |
| Apparent magnitude | 8.30 |
| Surface brightness | 12.3 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 8.8 × 8.8 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 75° |
| Best imaging months | Apr, May, Jun |
How to image M56
M56 sits in the constellation Lyra at right ascension 19h 16m 37s and declination +30° 11' 24". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.