The cluster was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 using his 18.7-inch telescope. Named after the nebula that surrounds it the Peony Nebula the Peony Star is a Wolf-Rayet star with an absolute magnitude of -11.5. The Sagittarius Cluster is located near the galactic bulge, the central group of stars in the Milky Way. This giant cloud of gas and dust is creating intensely bright young stars, and is home to young stellar clusters. Also known as the Archer, Sagittarius is represented by the symbol of a bow and arrow. The bright star in the centre of this image is not the star of this show. The nebula is an H II region originally discovered by the Swiss astronomer Jean-Philippe Loys De Chseaux in 1745. Mythology of the constellation Sagittarius. NGC 6578, image: Judy Schmidt (CC BY 2.0). Sagittarius embodies adventure and the pursuit of meaning. Realising Ixion's intentions, Zeus sent a cloud, disguised as Hera, to trick him. It can be found between the Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24) and the Omega Nebula (Messier 17). The star is classified as an irregular variable. This story does indeed refer to a constellation myth, but it's actually the myth behind the constellation Centaurus, not Sagittarius. Presently, there exists another centaur heavenly body, Centaurus, who is accepted to be named Chiron. The Teapot in Sagittarius, image: Wikisky. Sagittarius is one of the largest southern constellations. Messier 69 is a globular cluster. It has an apparent magnitude of 13.5 and can be seen near the star 16 Sagittarii. He even invented the bow, according to Greek mythology. Set against a backdrop of bright stars, the rust-colored object lies in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), in the southern sky. Soft gamma repeaters (SGR) are objects that emit enormous bursts of gamma-rays and X-rays at irregular intervals. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It is approximately 77.3 light years distant. Most likely it comes from different cultural interpretations of the constellations. The constellation has 32 stars with confirmed planets. It is a relatively young cluster, only 4.6 million years old, and it contains at least 57 stars. This cosmic pair is set against millions of glowing stars from the brightest part of the Milky Way a region so dense with stars that barely any dark sky is seen across the picture.This part of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) is one of the richest star fields in the whole sky the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. It was discovered by Edward Charles Pickering on August 18, 1882. The object is actually a small white dwarf star undergoing a helium flash one of only a handful of examples of such an event ever witnessed by astronomers. Crotus invented archery and lived on Mount Helicon. Once enough material was ejected, the stars luminous core was exposed and it began to produce ultraviolet radiation, exciting the surrounding gas to varying degrees and causing it to radiate in an attractive array of colours. The stars luminosity is uncertain it is estimated to be about 3.2 million times that of the Sun because the star is heavily obscured by dust and not visible in optical bands. The next occultation by a planet (Venus) will take place in our lifetime: on February 17, 2035. The nebula has an apparent size of only 10 by 8 arc seconds and an apparent magnitude of 13. In Greek mythology, Sagittarius represents a centaur, a half human, half horse creature with the torso of a man and the body and four legs of a horse. The stars and clusters in the Sagittarius Star Cloud are part of the Sagittarius or Sagittarius-Carina spiral arms of the Milky Way. Sagittarius constellation has its roots in Sumerian mythology. It is located approximately 17,300 light years from Earth. It is obscured from view by large cosmic dust clouds in the galaxys spiral arms. Peony Star has an estimated mass of about 100 solar masses and a radius 92 times solar. Epsilon Sagittarii is a binary star approximately 143 light years distant. Sagittarius A* is the leading candidate for the location of the supermassive black hole believed to be at the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy. Phi Sagittarii is a B8 class giant approximately 231 light years from Earth. The origin of Eta Sagittariis proper name Sephdar is unknown. The third star in the system is an O-type star with an apparent magnitude of 15.36. The clusters NGC 6522 and NGC 6528. Sometimes, Sagittarius is also associated with the Greek goddess Tyche and the Norse God Thor. Messier 55 is another globular cluster in Sagittarius. They have the head and torso of a man, but the bottom half of a hoofed beast. The Sagittarius symbol, or glyph is designed to depict the Centaur or Archer. The stars traditional name, Kaus Australis, comes from the Arabic word for bow (qaws) and the Latin word for southern (australis). Since the rotational axis of the system points roughly in the direction of our planet, and fast-spinning Wolf-Rayet stars are believed to produce gamma-ray bursts along their rotational axes when they meet their end, there has been a lot of debate about whether Earth will be affected by the supernova. Like other zodiac constellations, Sagittarius was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. The planetary nebula in the Sagittarius Cluster, designated GJJC1 is believed to be only 6,000 years old and has a blue star at the centre. NGC 6559, image: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (CC BY-SA 3.0 US). It has an apparent magnitude that varies from 6.5 to 14.0 over a pulsational period of 732 days. The clusters small central region has one of the highest star densities in the Milky Way. The brightest stars in the cluster are 16th magnitude. The cluster was discovered by Charles Messier in 1778. It lasted for full 72 seconds, but has never been detected since. NGC 6528 is another globular cluster, located just to the southwest of NGC 6522. The dwarf galaxy has no shortage of stellar splendour and pyrotechnics. Reddish nebulae in this image reveal regions of active star formation, wherein young, hot stars heat up nearby gas clouds. It is elliptical in shape and about 32 arc minutes across in size. In Greek mythology, Sagittarius is commonly thought to represent a centaur, a war-like creature with the torso of a man and the body of a horse. Satyrs did.) The Sagittarius Cluster is one of the brightest globular star clusters in the sky. The cluster lies at a distance of about 16,000 light years and has a magnitude of 9.30. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.32. Image: U Harvard. Sagittarius in mythology. It is less that 3 million years old, but it has shed a lot of its initial mass and is expected to end its life in a supernova or hypernova event in the next few million years. Since it lies very close to the ecliptic, Lambda Sagittarii is occasionally occulted by the Moon and, more rarely, by planets. Never observed anywhere in the bulge before, this peculiar cocktail of stars suggests that Terzan 5 is in fact one of the bulges primordial building blocks, most likely the relic of a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way during its very early days. It has an apparent magnitude of 5.1 and is approximately 10,600 light years distant. It is also associated with Crotus, the satyr who kept company of the Muses on Mount Helicon. Alpha Sagittarii shares its traditional name, Rukbat, with the star Delta Cassiopeiae (now formally known as Ruchbah). This galaxy is currently colliding with, and being absorbed by, the Milky Way, which is a monster in size when compared to this tiny one. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Potsdam Univ. The constellation Sagittarius contains 17 named stars. Sagittarius is an astrological sign transitted by the Sun from approximately November 23rd to December 22nd. It's easy to see why the myths behind Centaurus and Sagittarius often get confused. It has an estimated age of about 220 million years. NGC 6578 is a planetary nebula occupying an area of 8 arc seconds. This image was taken using the FORS instrument, mounted on ESOs Very Large Telescope. The image of the Peony Nebula star was taken by NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope in its naturally dusty region. In Greek myths, Sagittarius is shown as the representative of the Greek god Zeus. Barnard, who discovered it in 1881 using a six-inch refractor telescope. These images have an energy and motivate our behaviour from a deep primitive level of the unconscious. They both were known to hunt with a bow and arrow (though this is a bit misleading as centaurs did not traditionally use a bow and arrow. NGC 6544, based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). It is about 15 light years in diameter. This image is a tiny part of just one of eleven public surveys of the sky now in progress using ESO telescopes. Messier described the object as a large nebulosity containing many stars., Small Sagittarius Star Cloud (Messier 24), image: Thomas Jger (CC BY-SA 4.0). On 27 December, 2004, the brightest gamma ray burst ever detected outside the solar system was recorded emanating from the star, with an absolute magnitude of about -29. The cluster has a diameter of about 6 arc minutes. Sagittarius is most often associated with Crotus, the son of Pan (the goat-god) and Eupheme (the Muses' nurse). The legions of stars in a globular cluster orbit about a shared centre of gravity. NGC 6553 is loosely concentrated and has an apparent diameter of 8.2 arc minutes. The two stars are separated by 13.4 astronomical units (AU). Another Greek myth connects Sagittarius with Crotus, the son of Pan, the goat-god, and Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses. NGC 6624, based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). NGC 6440, based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, and obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA) and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA). It is a hydrogen fusing dwarf star that belongs to the spectral type B2.5 V. It has an apparent magnitude of 2.1. The stars temperature is also variable and changes from about 2,500 K to 3,500 K, which is unprecedented in a star of this type. It contains very few variable stars. It cannot be seen visually, but must be observed in radio, X-ray and infrared bands. NGC 6520 is an open star cluster with an apparent magnitude of 9.0. Crotus and Chiron were both exceptions to their races, being instead gifted in the arts and sciences and were knowledgeable and polite to humans. The brighter two components the Wolf-Rayet star and the class B companion are massive enough to be supernova candidates, with masses 10 and 20 times that of the Sun. The last occultation occurred on September 3, 423. The archer is usually identified as the centaur Chiron, though sometimes held to be a similar figure known as Crotus, a satyr. This striking view of the globular star cluster Messier 55 in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer) was obtained in infrared light with the VISTA survey telescope at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile. First discovered by amateur Japanese astronomer, Yukio Sakurai, in 1996, and noted as a nova-like object, Sakurais discovery turned out to be far more interesting than the supernova he initially supposed it to be. The stars are 28 arc seconds apart. NGC 6818 is a magnitude 10 planetary nebula in Sagittarius. It is a known X-ray source. He even invented the bow, according to Greek mythology. Astrology A medieval Sagittarius found in the Church of Notre-Dame, Sablires, France At the bottom centre is a rather unremarkable smudge of red which is in fact a rare and valuable object. The nebula was discovered by Edward Charles Pickering on July 14, 1880. NGC 6638 is a class VI globular cluster occupying an area of 2 arc minutes about half a degree to the east of Lambda Sagittarii. It is one of the nearest globular star clusters to Earth. They are in fact located behind the nebula. The supernova remnant Sagittarius A East is about 25 light years wide and appears to have originated in an event that occurred between 35,000 and 100,000 years ago. The stars spectral type is estimated to be between O9 and B2 and may be variable. The name is derived from the astronomical constellation Sagittarius, meaning "archer" in Latin. Westerhout 31 (W31) is a massive H II region in Sagittarius. The Quintuplet Cluster is another dense open cluster located in same region as the Arches Cluster, about 26,000 light years from Earth and 100 light years from the centre of the Milky Way. The brightest one has a magnitude of 9.2. Emerson/VISTA. Sagittarius: The Archer Myth based on the original Greek legend Once upon a time in the ancient lands of Greece, long before horses galloped under the weight of humans, there lived the great Chiron, the centaur. While the star is far enough for the supernova itself to be harmless, a long duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) pointed in our direction could certainly do serious damage to our ozone layer. Astronomers have nicknamed it the Garden-sprinkler Nebula due to its appearance. HD 190647 (G5IV) has a known exoplanet, discovered in 2007. This is the most popular version of the Sagittarius story. Delta Sagittarii is a multiple star system approximately 306 light years distant in the constellation Sagittarius. M22 was originally discovered by the German amateur astronomer Johann Abraham Ihle in 1665. NGC 6717 is a globular cluster 23,100 light years away. This beautiful image features the globular star cluster M75. NGC 6440 is another globular cluster in Sagittarius. It contains areas of massive H II emission, large clouds of partly ionized gas which show evidence of recent star forming activity. The Lagoon Nebula is a large interstellar cloud classified as an emission nebula. NGC 6822 has an apparent magnitude of 9.3 and is approximately 1.63 million light years distant. At the time of discovery, LBV 1806-20 was thought to be the most luminous and most massive star ever discovered. Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, and G. Piotto (Universit degli Studi di Padova), and E. Noyola (Max Planck Institut fr extraterrestrische Physik). This was the largest event of its kind seen in the Milky Way since 1604, when the type Ia supernova SN 1604 (Keplers Nova) was observed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in the direction of Ophiuchus constellation. Sagittarius belongs to the Zodiac family of constellations, along with Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 28, 1786. The star was discovered in February 1996 by Yukio Sakurai, an amateur astronomer. The cluster has an apparent diameter of 7 arc minutes and a visual magnitude of 9.47. Sagittarius is the ninth astrological sign of the zodiac. Being half human aligned the centaur with intellect and civility, while the horse end symbolized. The cluster contains 18 RR Lyrae type variable stars. Hurt 2, or 2MASS-GC02, is a globular cluster discovered only recently, in 2000. As the stars interact with each other over time, lighter stars tend to pick up speed and migrate out toward the clusters edges, while the heavier stars slow and congregate in orbits toward the centre. It has an apparent magnitude of 3.17. The subgiant has an apparent magnitude of 3.93 and is approximately 122 light years distant from the solar system. Located in the Galactic centre region, the Pistol Star lies approximately 25,000 light years from our solar system. Sagittarius A consists of the supernova remnant Sagittarius A East, the spiral structure Sagittarius A West, and a bright radio source located at the centre of the spiral, Sagittarius A*. The primary component, Arkab Prior A, is a B9 type main sequence dwarf with an apparent magnitude of 3.96, while the companion star, Arkab Prior B, is a class A3 dwarf with an apparent magnitude of 7.4. Pabilsag is an unusual centaur-like creature who fires arrows. It is a densely populated cluster, classified as class I. Satyrs have two legs while centaurs have four. During this time the black hole flared up in X-ray intensity half a dozen or more times. Return from Sagittarius Myth to the Constellation Myths page. The cluster is about 34 light years in radius, has an apparent magnitude of 9.06 and is approximately 29,300 light years distant. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 28, 1786. The shared birthday is another uncommon property; a large number of globular clusters, both in the Milky Way and in other galaxies, seem to have at least two clearly differentiated generations of stars that were born at different times. The most notable of these regions, the radio-emitting nebula G10.3-0.3, is home to the cluster 1806-20, which contains an O-type supergiant, two blue hypergiants, three Wolf-Rayet stars, the luminous blue variable LBV 1806-20 and the magnetar SGR 1806-20. The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESOs Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured this richly detailed new image of the Lagoon Nebula. The companion star has an apparent magnitude of 5.84 and is located about 359 light years from Earth. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784 using his 18-inch telescopes. Little Gem Nebula, image: Judy Schmidt (CC BY 2.0). One day, when Heracles was hunting, he accidentally shot Chiron in the knee with a poison arrow. The cluster has a diameter of 10 arc minutes and an apparent magnitude of 4.6. The star lies at a center of a planetary nebula, formed after the stars red giant stage about 8,300 years ago. NGC 6624 is another globular cluster in Sagittarius. Instead, Sagittarius is thought to represent Crotus, a satyr who invented the archer's bow. Messier 18 is an open star cluster in Sagittarius. The constellation name Sagittarius is pronounced /sdtris/. The brightest stars in the cluster are 7th magnitude. It lies at a distance of only 1,000 light years and has a radius of more than 9 light years, occupying more than 60 arc minutes of the apparent sky. This image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESOs La Silla Observatory in Chile, shows the bright star cluster NGC 6520 and its neighbour, the strangely shaped dark cloud Barnard 86. Terzan 7 has a considerable number of blue stragglers and the clusters centre has a particularly high concentration of these stars. It was discovered by William Herschel on May 22, 1784. Pi Sagittarii is also sometimes known as Albaldah, from the Arabic blda, which means the town. Egyptian astronomer Al Achsasi al Mouakket designated it Nir al Beldat in his star catalogue Calendarium in the mid-17th century. The closest complex of regions in W31 is formed by G10.2-0.3 and G10.6-0.4. Each appears in a different hue red, orange, yellow, and green-tinted bands of gas are visible, with clear patches of space at the heart of the nebula. The field of view is 35 x 34 arcmin. It has a half-mass diameter of 102 and linear radius of 2.7 light years. It has a mass three million times that of the Sun. Zeta Sagittarii consists of a class A2 giant star with an apparent magnitude of 3.26 and an A4 type subgiant star with an apparent magnitude of 3.37. In order to be put out of his misery, Chiron offered to be killed in place of Prometheus, who was being punished by the other gods for giving humans fire. It goes by many different names: Omega Nebula, Horseshoe Nebula, Lobster Nebula, Swan Nebula, Checkmark Nebula, and Sharpless 45. The Delta Sagittarii system is known in fiction from William R. Forstchens 1969 novel Into the Sea of Stars. One could easily interpret the shape as that of a half-man/half-horse instead of a half-man/half-goat. These same colours can be seen in the famous and impressive Ring Nebula (heic1310), a prominent example of a nebula like this one. Planetary nebulae are illuminated for around 10 000 years before the central star begins to cool and shrink to become a white dwarf. It cannot be seen in visual bands as a result of interstellar extinction, but was discovered in infrared observations. The Omega Nebula has an apparent magnitude of 6.0 and is between 5,000 and 6,000 light years distant. It is believed to be about 32 million years old. A transiting planet was spotted orbiting the magnitude 16 eclipsing variable star OGLE-TR-10 (G2V) in 2002. Other stars with confirmed exoplanets include HD 171238 (G8 V), HD 179949 (F8 V), HD 181720 (G1V), HD 187085 (G0V), WASP-67 (K0V), MOA-2011-BLG-293L (M1.5V), MOA-2009-BLG-319L (K8V), HD 181342 (K0III), HD 180902 (K0III/IV), OGLE-TR-56 (G), OGLE-2003-BLG-235L (K5), OGLE-2005-BLG-169L (M), MOA-2007-BLG-192L, and MOA-2007-BLG-400L (M3V). Crotus, much like Chiron, was a skilled musician and hunter. It has a radius of 0.95 arc minutes. It is approximately 149 light years distant. The cluster occupies an area of 2 of apparent sky. The star marks the base of the archers bow. The spiral structure Sagittarius A West appears like a three-arm spiral and is sometimes called the Minispiral. The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 11.29 and lies at a distance of 24,100 light years from Earth. The star is probably a B or O type main sequence dwarf that has accreted much of the primary stars mass. In some cases, however, the star reignites in a helium flash and expands to return to a red giant state, ejecting huge amounts of gas and dust in the process, before once again shrinking to become a white dwarf. The brightest star in Sagittarius is Kaus Australis, Epsilon Sagittarii (spectral class B9.5 III), with an apparent magnitude of 1.79. It is classified as an irregular variable star, with an apparent magnitude varying from 4.51 to 4.65 with a period of about 20 days. The numbers 1806-20 indicate its position in the sky (right ascension and declination). When Ehman discovered it, he printed his findings out, circled the signal and wrote Wow! next to it, which is how the signal got its name. The planetary nebula Henize 3-1475, also catalogued as IRAS 17423-1755, lies at an approximate distance of 18,000 light years from Earth. (The other three are Messier 15 in the constellation Pegasus, Palomar 6 in Ophiuchus and NGC 6441 in Scorpius.). It has an apparent size of 4.75 by 4.75. The primary star has two companions; Pi Sagittarii B 0.1 arc seconds away and Pi Sagittarii C 0.4 arc seconds away. Whether you think Sagittarius is based on Chiron or Crotus doesn't really matter, I suppose. The galaxy was discovered on a photographic plate taken for the ESO Atlas in June 1977. The brightest stars in the cluster are 16th magnitude. It is located between Zeta and Sigma Sagittarii. It is one of the closest stars to the Sun and the nearest star in Sagittarius constellation. The cluster was discovered by William Herschel on August 7, 1784. It has an apparent magnitude of 13 and lies at an estimated distance between 3,000 and 8,000 light years from Earth. Terzan 7 is the brightest of the six globulars discovered by Agop Terzan in 1968. At the equator, the pulsar is spinning at a speed of more than 70,000 km/s, or about 24% of the speed of light. 60 Sagittarii (or A Sagittarii) is a G-type giant at the northwest corner of the asterism, approximately 340 light years away. Ascella also has a dim companion 75 arc seconds away. Alnasl comes from the Arabic al-nal which means arrowhead, and Nushaba is derived from Zujj al-Nashshaba, which means the same thing. The star cluster 1806-20 is home to many massive stars that are expected to end their lives as supernovas in the next few million years. The nebula lies at a distance of 6,000 light years from Earth and has an oval diameter of 15 to 22 arcseconds. It is a suspected binary star, even though a companion has never been confirmed. All content Copyright 2010-2020, Royal Mint Publishing LLC. Sagittarius, the centaur, is the ninth sign in the Zodiac and represents those born between Nov. 22 and Dec. 21. 59 Sagittarii (sometimes also known as b Sagittarii) is a K-type bright giant at the southeast corner, about 1,200 light years distant. Red Spider Nebula (NGC 6537), image: Judy Schmidt (CC BY 2.0). The galaxy was named after the American astronomer E.E. The stars agony has culminated in a wonderful planetary nebula known as NGC 6565, a cloud of gas that was ejected from the star after strong stellar winds pushed the stars outer layers away into space. Stars orbit the object at speeds greater than those of any other stars found in the Milky Way. The star has a luminosity 3,300 times that of the Sun and about seven solar masses. At the centre of the Lagoon Nebula, there is a structure known as the Hourglass Nebula (not the same object as the famous Hourglass Nebula, which is located in the constellation Musca). Also prominent in the upper left of this new image is a striking bubble-shaped nebula. The galaxy is about 10,000 light years in diameter and it consists of four globular star clusters, the main one of which was discovered in 1994. Zodiac Signs and Greek mythology One of the most well-known aspects of astrology is the connection between the zodiac signs and Greek mythology. About 25 stars in the cluster are of magnitude 9 to 12. Peering through the thick dust clouds of our galaxys central parts (the bulge) with an amazing amount of detail, a team of astronomers has revealed an unusual mix of stars in the stellar grouping known as Terzan 5. Image: ESO/F. Chiron was a kind, talented, and gentle creature. The nebula is in fact a combination of an emission nebula (the lower part), a reflection nebula (the upper part) and an open cluster. It has an apparent magnitude of 9 and lies 9,450 light years from Earth. The star cannot be observed in visual bands because less than a billionth of its light in the visible spectrum reaches us, which translates to about 35th visual magnitude. They are believed to be a type of magnetar. Quarters are always tight in globular clusters, where the mutual hold of gravity binds together hundreds of thousands of stars in a small region of space. The Mythology Behind The Sagittarius Constellation Explained. signal, the first and only radio signal ever received that indicated the possibility of extraterrestial intelligence. A Hubble Space Telescope photo of the planetary nebula Henize 3-1475. In English, the constellation is known as the Archer. Edward Emerson Barnard catalogued it as IC 4690 in August 1905. Image: ESA/Hubble and NASA. It is good to remember the reason why Sagittarius is a centaur in the first place. The Bubble Nebula is an emission nebula located in Barnards Galaxy. The end of this star may only last mere moments on a cosmological timescale, but this stars demise is still quite lengthy by our standards, lasting tens of thousands of years! This is the stars modern name, which is either Babylonian or Assyrian in origin. The nebula spans about 35 and is located only 0.36 arc minutes from the cluster NGC 6440. The Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy (Sag DEG) is an elliptical galaxy shaped like a loop. NGC 6822 is a barred irregular galaxy that belongs to the Local Group of galaxies. It lies at an estimated distance of 50,000 light years from Earth on the other side of our galaxy. Gamma Sagittarii is also known by its traditional names, Alnasl and Nushaba. The Omega Nebula is an emission nebula in Sagittarius. Its old astronomical symbol is (). It's not a mindless ramble for these folks, either. Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it? The cloud is about 600 light years wide and approximately 10,000 light years distant. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1784. The cluster is about 67 light years in radius and has an apparent magnitude of 9.18. Pi Sagittarii is a triple star system approximately 440 light years distant, with an apparent magnitude of 2.88. It was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Mchain in 1780. It is now believed to be located at least 15 times farther away.