NGC 2419 appears as a faint globular cluster in Lynx, though in reality it’s a massive and luminous object that’s a distant outlier of our Milky Way Galaxy.
The constellation of Lynx is pretty uninspiring deep-sky wise, though one of its saving graces is the presence of NGC 2419 (Caldwell 25), an extremely remote globular cluster that’s very well-known by its nickname the Intergalactic Tramp, or Wanderer.
NGC 2419 lies an incredible 275,000 and 300,000 light years distant from our Solar System and the galactic centre, respectively. (Messier 13 lies a mere 25,000 light years or so away.) This means that it lies not far short of twice as far away as the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)! The LMC lies 160.000 light years distant and is an irregular dwarf galaxy of the Local Group that orbits our Milky Way Galaxy. The globular’s nickname originated when astronomers believed it wasn’t gravitationally bound to our Galaxy, a theory now discounted.
NGC 2419 lies in the far south-western quadrant of Lynx, close to its boundary with Auriga to the west. It lies seven degrees north of Castor (alpha [α] Geminorum). NGC 2419 is circumpolar from UK shores, culminating around 77 degrees high from London.
The Intergalactic Tramp shines at magnitude +10.3 and spans 4.1’ at its fullest extent, unspectacular numbers only because the globular lies so far away. Intrinsically, NGC 2419 is extremely massive and luminous.
A 100mm (4-inch) telescope should have sufficient light grasp to track down NGC 2419 on a moonless and transparent night, though merely as a soft, unresolved patch of light. A telescope in the 300mm (12-inch) class operating at high magnification can show hints of granularity across a roughly 2’ form.
