Globular cluster
NGC 1851 (NGC1851)
In Columba (Col) • Magnitude 7.2 • 9.0 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with NGC 1851 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
Globular cluster in Columba.
NGC 1851 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | N 1851 |
| Type | Globular cluster |
| Constellation | Columba (Col) |
| Right ascension | 05h 14m 07s |
| Declination | -40° 02' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 7.20 |
| Surface brightness | 20.6 mag/arcsec² |
| Angular size | 9.0 × 9.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 5° |
| Best imaging months | Nov, Dec, Jan |
How to image NGC 1851
NGC 1851 sits in the constellation Columba at right ascension 05h 14m 07s and declination -40° 02' 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.