47 Tucanae
47 Tucanae is a globular cluster: an ancient, dense ball of up to a million stars about 120 light-years across, 16,700 light-years away in Tucana. From the Southern Hemisphere it looks like a fuzzy star to the eye, right beside the Small Magellanic Cloud, though it is part of our own Galaxy and far in front of it. A small telescope turns its edges into a blaze of stars.
When to see it
Best evenings: August to February (southern hemisphere).
Seen from south of about 8° N. Choose your city for tonight’s times and where to look.
“Up” means at least 10° above the horizon while the Sun is at least 12° below it (dark enough for faint nebulae and galaxies). Your location, if you share it, stays on this device.
At a glance
- Distance
- 16,700 light-years [1]
- The light you see left it
- around 14,700 BCE
- Constellation
- Tucana
- Position (J2000)
- RA 0h 24m 05s, Dec −72° 05′
- Visible from
- south of about 8° N (farther north it never climbs 10° above the horizon)
- High in the evening (9 pm)
- August to February from mid-southern latitudes
- How to see it
- With your eyes
47 Tucanae tonight from four cities
| City | Tonight |
|---|---|
| New York | Always below your horizon here.never rises here |
| Los Angeles | Always below your horizon here.never rises here |
| London | Always below your horizon here.never rises here |
| Sydney | Up all night, best around 10:15 pm, look south.best 10:15 pm, 52° up, south |
Tonight in each city’s local time, computed November 8, 2026 with Astronomy Engine (the page refreshes every hour). For your own city, choose it above.
47 Tucanae: the facts
| Also called | NGC 104 [2] |
|---|---|
| Stars | up to a million [1] |
| Size | about 120 light-years across [1] |
| Inside it | two populations of stars with different chemistry and different motions [1] |
What is a globular cluster like 47 Tucanae?
Globular clusters are among the oldest things in our Galaxy, tight balls of stars that orbit the Milky Way's center. 47 Tucanae's large bright stars are red giants, old stars swollen near the end of their lives. Hubble tracked the motions of more than 30,000 of its stars and found two populations with different chemistry and different motions, clues to how the cluster built its stars.
Step inside 47 Tucanae in Everdust
In Everdust’s Night Sky, look at 47 Tucanae and pinch to fly there on Apple Vision Pro, or tap it on iPhone, iPad and Android. What you arrive in, in the app’s own words: “47 Tucanae as it is today: a dense ball of old stars, modelled. Their slow drift is sped up.”
Everdust on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Vision ProEverdust on Google Play for Android
Everdust is free on the App Store for Apple Vision Pro, iPhone and iPad, and on Google Play for Android; Night Sky flies to 47 Tucanae on all of them. It is also free on Apple TV, with other worlds. I make Everdust, so weigh that; a star-map app such as Stellarium or SkySafari will find 47 Tucanae just as well.
Questions people ask
Can I see 47 Tucanae tonight? It depends on where you are. It can be seen from south of about 8° N, and it is best in the evening sky August to February from mid-southern latitudes. Choose your city on this page for tonight's times and where to look. With your eyes: Visible to the eye from a dark southern site as a fuzzy star beside the Small Magellanic Cloud; stunning in any telescope.
Where is 47 Tucanae in the sky? In the constellation Tucana, at right ascension 0h 24m 05s and declination −72° 05′ (J2000). It can be seen from south of about 8° N (farther north it never climbs 10° above the horizon).
How far away is 47 Tucanae? About 16,700 light-years (NASA); ESO gives about 15,000. Either way it's more than ten times nearer than the Small Magellanic Cloud beside it.
Can you see 47 Tucanae from the Northern Hemisphere? No, except from the tropics: it's about 72° south of the celestial equator, so it never rises for anyone more than about 18° north of the equator.
Sources
- Distance: “the cluster is about 16,700 light-years away” (science.nasa.gov, the figure Everdust uses)
- ESO eso1302a: The globular star cluster 47 Tucanae
Distance and position: the deep-sky catalog in Everdust’s Night Sky (read November 1, 2026), each figure quoted from the source above. Constellation, seasons and tonight are computed with Astronomy Engine (Don Cross, MIT license). More: Wikipedia.
