H-NGC2414
Open Cluster in Puppis
About
HD 60308, a magnitude 8 star, marks the middle of this sparse Puppis cluster, with its faint members strung in arcs around it; fewer than two dozen stand out from the background. William Herschel logged it in 1785, and it is in the Herschel 400.
Imaging tips
- Too small to frame: use a long focal length and a fine pixel scale, since the stars cover only about 5–6′.
- Surface brightness is 19.5 mag/arcsec², bright for a cluster, so it does not need the long integrations that faint objects do.
- Best around December and January, but it peaks near only 25° from 50°N.
Facts
- Size
- 4′
- Magnitude
- 7.9
- Coordinates
- RA 7h 33.2m, Dec −15° 27′
- Framing, APS-C
- longer than 4000 mm
- Framing, full frame
- longer than 4000 mm
- Best months
- Jan, Dec
- Peak altitude
- 25° from 50°N, 40° from 35°N