An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics

The second brightest → globular cluster, after → Omega Centauri. It is seen on the sky near the → Small Magellanic Cloud in the southern constellation → Tucana. Its apparent size is 31’, about the size of the full Moon. It is about 13,000 → light-years away and contains several million stars in a volume only about 120 light-years across.

See also: 47, the object number in the catalog of Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826) Allgemeine Beschreibung und Nachweisung der Gestirne nebst Verzeichniss, compiled in 1801; → Tucana.