Globular cluster
M62 (M62)
In Ophiuchus (Oph) • Magnitude 7.4 • 15 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M62 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
An unusually asymmetric globular cluster in Ophiuchus, with one side noticeably more concentrated than the other. This lopsided shape is a direct fingerprint of tidal distortion from the nearby galactic centre, whose gravity is physically reshaping the cluster from 22,500 light-years away.
M62 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M62, N 6266 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Constellation | Ophiuchus (Oph) |
| Right ascension | 17h 01m 12s |
| Declination | -30° 07' 12" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.39 |
| Surface brightness | 12.4 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 15.0 × 15.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 15° |
| Best imaging months | Mar, Apr, May |
How to image M62
M62 sits in the constellation Ophiuchus at right ascension 17h 01m 12s and declination -30° 07' 12". 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.