SOCO IMAGE GALLERY


 

M 47 (NGC 2422)     

M 47 is a bright, scattered open cluster lying within the Winter Milky Way in the constellation Puppis. M 47 is located only about a degree away from another nice cluster, M 46, and the two make an attractive pair when viewed in a low-power telescope. The two cluster are not physically related, with M 46 lying at a distance of 4480 LY and M 47 lying much closer at 1600 LY. M 47 contains around 50 to 100 member stars but the cluster does not appear overly rich because it is dominated by a small number of bright blue giants, with the dimmer members being lost among the general Milky Way star field. This gives M 47 an appearance something like the Pleiades (M 45).
M 47 is believed to have been discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna some time before 1654. It was independently re-discovered by Messier in February 1771 on the same night he observed the nearby M 46. But, as with other objects Messier observed, he recorded the position incorrectly. Thus, M 47 was "lost" until 1934 when Oswald Thomas recognized the correct location for it.
There are two other open clusters in my image. The large, loose cloud of stars near the right edge of the image is NGC 2423. It barely stands out from the background of Milky Way stars. NGC 2423 contains around 86 member stars and lies at a distance of 2460 LY. The small, tight grouping of faint stars in the upper left corner of the image is NGC 2425. It contains around 30 member stars arranged in a straggling "T" shape.

Date(s) Acquired: 7 February 2016
Telescope: Orion 120mm EON Apochromatic Refractor
Camera: QSI Model 583 with Optec NextGEN Ultra Widefield 0.7X Telecompressor

 

   Exposure Time (min) 
   Number of Exposures
   RGB
   1.5
   
   -
   
   -
   OIII
   -
   RGB
   16
   
   0
   
   0
   OIII
   0

 

Processing:
Master red, green, and blue images created using SuperSIAM.
Color composite image created using Basic Processing Procedure III.
Color composite image contrast-stretched using Adobe Photoshop.




 

 

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