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public  Greenwich, UK Greenwich, UK  ⓘ
Timezone: Europe/London
Sunrise: 5:05 
Transit: 12:56 
Sunset: 20:48
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In Evidence

New Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) Discovered in May 2025
Detailed information about the discovery of Comet C/2025 J1 (Borisov) and pointers to useful resources to track and observe it. Read more...

Other deep sky objects in Sagittarius
All Constellations »  Sagittarius »  Deep Sky Objects » 

Messier 55 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius

Below the horizon.  Rise: 2:13 | Tran: 4:57 | Set: 7:41
Alt: -64.16°   Az: 45.39°   Direction: North-East

Messier 55 is a Globular Cluster in the Sagittarius constellation. Messier 55 is situated south of the celestial equator and, as such, it is more easily visible from the southern hemisphere. Given its visual magnitude of 6.49, Messier 55 is easily visible with the help of a small binocular.

The image below is a photograph of Messier 55 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 0.4000x0.4000 degrees (24.00x24.00 arcmins).

Image of Messier 55 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius star
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DSS2 image of Messier 55 in the Red band. The green region on the image is a representation of the major (12 arcmin) and minor (12 arcmin) axes of the object's apparent size.

Celestial Coordinates

Apparent

19h 41m 35s
-30° 54’ 07”
13h 24m 47s
09h 06m 22s

J2000

19h 39m 59s
-30° 57’ 43”

Finder Chart

The simplified sky charts below show the position of Messier 55 in the sky. The first chart has a field of view of 60° while the second one has a field of view of 10°.

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Finder chart for Messier 55 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius.

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Finder chart for Messier 55 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius.

Photometric Information

The following table lists the magnitude of Messier 55 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).

6.49

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

Apparent Size

The following table reports Messier 55 apparent angular size. The green area displayed on top of the DSS2 image of Messier 55 is a visual representation of it.
12 arcmin
12 arcmin

Rise and Set Times

Location: Greenwich, UK
Latitude: 51° 28’ 47” N
Longitude: 0° 00’ 00” E
Timezone: Europe/London

Today's Messier 55 - Globular Cluster in Sagittarius rise, transit and set times from Greenwich, UK are the following (all times relative to the local timezone Europe/London):

Azimuth: 120.9°
Max altitude: 7.6°
Azimuth: 239.1°