Your guide to the Solar System and the night sky
By donating now you help keep this site alive and free from ads. Please consider supporting this project.
🌎  Observing from: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
🌅 Sunrise: 6:45  ☀️ Transit: 13:03  🌅 Sunset: 19:23

Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius

Messier 4 is a Globular Cluster in the Scorpius constellation. Messier 4 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern emisphere.

Messier 4
Globular Cluster
Scorpius
  • Messier 4 is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]. See also rise and set times.
  • Given its visual magnitude of 5.4, Messier 4 is barely visible to the naked eye, easily visible with the help of a small binocular.
Available Resources for Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius

Photometric information of Messier 4

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 4 in different bands of the electomagnetic spectrum (when available), from the B band (445nm wavelength, corresponding to the Blue color), to the V band ( 551nm wavelength, corresponding to Green/Yellow color), to the J, H, K bands (corresponding to 1220nm, 1630nm, 2190nm wavelengths respectively, which are colors not visible to the human eye).

5.4

For more information about photometry in astronomy, check the photometric system article on Wikipedia.

Apparent size of Messier 4

The following table reports Messier 4 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 4 is a visual representation of it.
28.2 arcmin
28.2 arcmin

Digitized Sky Survey image of Messier 4

The image below is a photograph of Messier 4 from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2 - see the credits section) taken in the red channel. The area of sky represented in the image is 0.94x0.94 degrees (56.4x56.4 arcmins).

Image of Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius star
/>
DSS2 image of Messier 4 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (28.2 arcmin) and minor (28.2 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial coordinates and finder chart of Messier 4

Celestial coordinates for the J2000 equinox of Messier 4 are provided in the following table:

16h 23m 35s
-26° 31’ 32”

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 4 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

Finder chart Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius.

Finder chart Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius star
Simplified finder chart for Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius.

Rise ans set times of Messier 4 from your location

Location: Greenwich, United Kingdom [change]
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, United Kingdom [change] are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 116.5°
Max altitude: 12.0°
Azimuth: 243.5°
Messier 4 (The Cat's Eye) - Globular Cluster in Scorpius is below the horizon from Greenwich, United Kingdom