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Melotte 66 — Open Cluster in Puppis

Open Cluster Good (53/100)
Magnitude 7.8m OpenCluster Puppis Visible
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1Properties

Magnitude 7.8
Angular Size 14 arcmin
Distance 15,500 ly
Open Cluster

Position & Identifiers

RA 07h 26m 23.0s
Dec -47° 40' 00.0"
Constellation Puppis
Catalog Mel 66
Physical size
63 light-years across — tens of light-years across — wider than the solar neighbourhood

2How easy to spot?

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Telescope Bortle 3 Bortle 4 Bortle 5
80mm refr. Easy Easy Easy
150mm Newt. Easy Easy Easy
C8 203mm Easy Easy Easy
Easy Medium Hard Very hard Impossible

Bortle 3 = rural · 4 = outer suburbs · 5 = suburbs

Easy on Seestar S50

3Visibility

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Best season Dec – Feb (peak: Jan)

4 Eyepiece View

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125x TFOV: 0.4° Lim. mag: 13.6
N E

Melotte 66 · 14.0′ diameter

5 Best Magnification

Discover

6

Light Travel Time Machine

7

Relativistic Travel

Nearby in the Sky

Other targets within a few degrees — pan your scope a little and keep exploring.

Visibility scores assume a 150 mm Newton at Bortle 4.

L2 Pup
Easy
Mira-type variable, range 2.6–6.2
Variable Star mag 5.10 3.8° Puppis
Collinder 173
Easy
Open cluster
Open Cluster mag 0.6 6.3° Vela
NGC 2502
Medium
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 11.96 6.6° Carina
NGC 2547
Easy
Rich open cluster
Open Cluster mag 4.7 7.4° Vela
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