M 52 Deep sky · Open cluster in Cassiopeia · M 52 · NGC 7654
Cassiopeia Salt-and-Pepper Cluster
A rich open cluster in Cassiopeia, found by extending the line from Schedar through Caph — with the Bubble Nebula nearby.
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- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- M 52 · NGC 7654
- Constellation
- Cassiopeia
- Apparent magnitude
- 6.9
- Apparent size
- 16′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 23h 25m · Dec +61° 36′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 1.9 times as wide. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 57°, around late April, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Thu 9 Sep 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT+1 | Never sets | 01:11 · 80° | — |
| New York EDT | Never sets | 01:06 · 69° | — |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:07 | 01:16 · 30° | 07:25 |
| Sydney GMT+10 | Never rises | ||
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes, on any clear night of the year. From there it never sets: it is circumpolar, circling the pole and still 22° up at its lowest.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- No. From there it never rises: you would have to travel north of 28° south before it cleared the horizon at all.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around early September, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by early December it is highest in the early evening, and in early June 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
Run a line from Schedar through Caph in the W and carry on about as far again: a small glow in binoculars.
Look for
From 50° north and 35° north it is circumpolar and never sets; from the equator it climbs to 28°; from 35° south it never rises.
Look for
Magnitude 6.9 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (2.4 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (0.1 to spare); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (4.1 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (5.6 to spare). Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 4% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 27% of the field’s width.