Messier 48 (M48) is an open star cluster located in Hydra, the largest constellation in the sky-
The cluster has an apparent magnitude of 5.5 and lies at a distance of 1,500 light years from Earth. It has the designation NGC 2548 in the New General Catalogue.
Messier 48 can be seen without binoculars in good conditions. It lies near the border with the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. The cluster is quite conspicuous, occupying an area of 54 arc minutes of apparent sky, which corresponds to a spatial diameter of 23 light years.
The cluster is easily seen in binoculars and small telescopes, which reveal about 50 stars brighter than magnitude 13. M48 has at least 80 members, including three giant stars of spectral types G to K. The hottest star in the cluster has the stellar classification A2 and a visual magnitude of 8.8. It is about 70 times more luminous than the Sun. The estimated age of M48 is 300 million years.
Charles Messier added the cluster to his catalogue on February 19, 1771. However, M48 was considered one of the lost Messier objects for a long time because the coordinates provided by Messier did not match those of NGC 2548: his declination was off by 5 degrees.
Messier described M48 as a “cluster of very small stars, without nebulosity,” noting that “this cluster is at a short distance from the three stars that form the beginning of the Unicorn‘s tail.“
--Messier-objects.com
More:
Messier48 - WikipediaMessier48 - Astropixels.comMessier48 - SEDSThis is image #34 in long term project to photograph the complete Messier catalog. Turn out ok I think, log show some guiding errors so I researching that, perhaps due to bright moon, again is not most spectacular object but interesting object, nice colours variation and in a nice star field. RGB each image 300 seconds.
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