Globular cluster
M72 (M72)
In Aquarius (Aqr) • Magnitude 9.3 • 6.6 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M72 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A faint, compact globular cluster in Aquarius, one of the more remote Messier globulars at about 53,000 light-years — so far out in the Milky Way's halo that some models suggest it may have originally been captured from a smaller dwarf galaxy long since absorbed by the Milky Way.
M72 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M72, N 6981 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Constellation | Aquarius (Aqr) |
| Right ascension | 20h 53m 31s |
| Declination | -12° 31' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 9.35 |
| Surface brightness | 13.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 6.6 × 6.6 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 32° |
| Best imaging months | Apr, May, Jun |
How to image M72
M72 sits in the constellation Aquarius at right ascension 20h 53m 31s and declination -12° 31' 48". 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.