NGC 5897

RA:

15:17:24.50

Dec:

-21:00:37.0

Distance from Sun:

40.8 kly

Distance from Galactic Center:

24.1 kly

Apparent Diameter:

12.6 arc min

Brightness:

8.53 mag vis

Radial Velocity:

+101.5 +/- 1.0 km/s

Diameter:

ly

Abs. Mag:

-7.23 Mag vis

Globular Cluster NGC 5897 was discovered by William Herschel, probably on April 25, 1784 when he logged his H VI.8 with an inacurate position, but with certainty on March 10, 1785 when he cataloged it as H VI.19.

With its visual brightness of about 8.5 mag, this is a fairly bright and fine object for telescopes of any size. It is situated about 5deg NE of Sigma Lib (mag 3), and 8deg SW of Alpha Lib.

The image on the right was obtained by Chris and Dawn Schur from Payson, Arizona with their 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian and SBIG ST7E CCD camera. This is an LRGB composite image, exposed LRGB = 60:20:20:20 minutes.