- Collinder 463
Collinder 463 is a large, rather sparse open cluster located in the constellation Cassiopeia. It is one of the northernmost open clusters, lying well above the main stream of the Milky Way at a declination of +71.8 degrees. It has a visual magnitude of 5.7 and an apparent size of 57 arc-min. Were this cluster located more to the south within the main stream of the Milky Way, it would probably be indistinguishable from the background stars. Being isolated above the Milky Way greatly helps its visibility.
This cluster was first described by the Swedish astronomer Per Arne Collinder in 1931. It was overlooked by Messier and the Herschells, so it has no "M" or "NGC" numbers. Collinder 643 contains around 80 member stars and lies at a distance of 2280 LY from us.
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