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NGC 361

open cluster

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ1036271 ↗
Source-derived summary

NGC 361 is an open cluster in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It is located in the constellation Tucana. It was discovered on September 6, 1826, by James Dunlop. It was described by Dreyer as "very very faint, pretty large, very little extended, very gradually brighter middle." At an aperture of 31.0 arcseconds, its apparent V-band magnitude is 12.24, but at this wavelength, it has 0.40 magnitudes of interstellar extinction.

NGC 361 is about 8.1 billion years old. Its estimated mass is 2.15×105 M☉, and its total luminosity is 1.04×105 L☉, leading to a mass-to-luminosity ratio of 2.07 M☉/L☉. All else equal, older star clusters have higher mass-to-luminosity ratios; that is, they have lower luminosities for the same mass.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “NGC 361” as open cluster. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around cluster.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1826—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with cluster providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “NGC 361”, the useful work is to connect “open cluster” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1036271. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1826.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “NGC 361”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow NGC 361 primary sources, NGC 361 archive and cluster research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “NGC 361”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “NGC 361” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.