Globular cluster
M80 (M80)
In Scorpius (Sco) • Magnitude 7.9 • 10 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M80 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
One of the densest globular clusters in the Milky Way, with a tightly packed core that resists resolution even through large telescopes. In 1860 a nova exploded within it, briefly shining brighter than all the rest of the cluster's stars combined — a reminder that even these ancient stellar cities are not entirely quiet.
M80 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M80, N 6093 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Constellation | Scorpius (Sco) |
| Right ascension | 16h 16m 59s |
| Declination | -22° 58' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.87 |
| Surface brightness | 12.0 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 10.0 × 10.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 22° |
| Best imaging months | Feb, Mar, Apr |
How to image M80
M80 sits in the constellation Scorpius at right ascension 16h 16m 59s and declination -22° 58' 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.