M 34 Deep sky · Open cluster in Perseus · M 34 · NGC 1039
Spiral Cluster
A bright open cluster in Perseus, between Algol and Almach, that binoculars show as a spray of stars on the Milky Way’s edge.
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- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- M 34 · NGC 1039
- Constellation
- Perseus
- Apparent magnitude
- 5.2
- Apparent size
- 25′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 02h 42m · Dec +42° 46′
It is about as wide as the full Moon, which is about 31′ across. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 26°, around mid May, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Thu 29 Oct 2026, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | Never sets | 00:11 · 81° | — |
| New York EDT | 15:35 | 01:05 · 88° | 10:36 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:12 | 01:16 · 48° | 07:20 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 21:42 | 01:07 · 13° | 04:32 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes, on any clear night of the year — it is circumpolar from there and never quite sets, though at its lowest it skims the horizon, where trees and haze will hide it.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 12° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around late October, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by late January it is highest in the early evening, and in late July not until the hours before dawn.
- Naked eye, binoculars or telescope?
- The naked eye, from a dark country sky, which shows stars to about magnitude 7.0; from a city, binoculars.
Look for
Find Algol and Almach and look a little closer to Algol, on the line between them.
Look for
From 50° north it is circumpolar and never sets; from 35° north it climbs to 82°; from the equator it climbs to 47°; from 35° south it climbs to 12°.
Look for
Magnitude 5.2 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (0.7 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (1.8 to spare); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (5.8 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (7.3 to spare). Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 6% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 42% of the field’s width.