M 93 Deep sky · Open cluster in Puppis · M 93 · NGC 2447
Butterfly Cluster
A bright open cluster in Puppis shaped like a wedge, or an arrowhead, on the Milky Way just east of Canis Major.
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- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- M 93 · NGC 2447
- Constellation
- Puppis
- Apparent magnitude
- 6.2
- Apparent size
- 10′
- Position (J2000)
- RA 07h 45m · Dec −23° 51′
The full Moon, about 31′ across, is 3.1 times as wide. The Sun comes no nearer to it than 44°, around late July, so it is never lost in the Sun’s glare, which reaches about 15° out.
When to see it
On the night of Thu 14 Jan 2027, when it is highest around midnight, on each city’s own clock:
| From | Rises | Highest | Sets |
|---|---|---|---|
| London GMT | 20:25 | 00:09 · 15° | 03:52 |
| New York EST | 19:34 | 00:03 · 25° | 04:33 |
| Singapore GMT+8 | 19:17 | 01:14 · 65° | 07:11 |
| Sydney GMT+11 | 17:57 | 01:05 · 80° | 08:13 |
Common questions
- Can I see it from 50° north?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 16° up in the south.
- Can I see it from 35° south?
- Yes. It rises and sets, and at its highest it stands 79° up in the north.
- When is the best time of year to see it?
- Around mid January, when it stands opposite the Sun and is highest at midnight. It comes round about two hours earlier each month, so by mid April it is highest in the early evening, and in mid October 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
It lies north-east of Wezen, on the border with Canis Major. Binoculars show a small, bright patch.
Look for
From 50° north it climbs to 16°; from 35° north it climbs to 31°; from the equator it climbs to 66°; from 35° south it climbs to 79°.
Look for
Magnitude 6.2 against the faintest star each can show: the eye under a city sky, 4.5 (1.7 short); the eye under a dark country sky, 7.0 (0.8 to spare); 50 mm binoculars under that dark sky, 11.0 (4.8 to spare); a 100 mm telescope there, 12.5 (6.3 to spare). Through 7×50 binoculars, whose field is about 7.1° across, it spans 2% of the field’s width; through a 100 mm telescope at 50×, a field about 1° across, it spans 17% of the field’s width.