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Melotte 72 — Open Cluster in Puppis

Open Cluster Good (42/100)
Magnitude 10.1m OpenCluster Puppis Visible
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1Properties

Magnitude 10.1
Angular Size 5 arcmin
Distance 10,600 ly
Open Cluster

Position & Identifiers

RA 07h 38m 24.0s
Dec -10° 40' 60.0"
Constellation Puppis
Catalog Mel 72
Physical size
15 light-years across — about 1.8× the Sun-to-Sirius distance

2How easy to spot?

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Telescope Bortle 3 Bortle 4 Bortle 5
80mm refr. Medium+ Medium Hard+
150mm Newt. Easy Easy Medium+
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 72 · 5.0′ 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.

Melotte 71
Easy
Open cluster
Open Cluster mag 7.1 1.4° Puppis
NGC 2396
Easy
Open cluster
Open Cluster mag 7.0 2.7° Puppis
NGC 2423
Easy
Rich open cluster
Open Cluster mag 6.7 3.2° Puppis
M47
NGC 2422
Easy
Rich open cluster
Open Cluster mag 4.4 3.8° Puppis
NGC 2438
Hard+
Planetary nebula — try an OIII filter
Planetary Nebula mag 10.0 4.1° Puppis
NGC 2517
Hard+
Bright spiral galaxy
Galaxy mag 12.3 6.2° Puppis
Show on Map

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