M47 Observation Details
M47 Daily Motion
M47 will not be observable tonight. It will reach its transit at 38° by 17:59 and set at 23:12. Throughout the night, from 04:44 to 05:22, it will be below the horizon. M47 will rise again after sunrise, at 12:42.M47 will become visible in September, 29. After being too close to the Sun to observe, it will reappear in the night sky. Starting from September, 29, M47 can be seen again, providing a good opportunity for observation.
M47 Visibility Timetable on May 09
M47 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 87.7% illuminated | 17:00 | 36° |
| M47 transit | 17:59 | 38° |
| Sunset | 20:27 | 27° |
| Civil sunset | 20:57 | 23° |
| Astrosession begin | 22:10 | 11° |
| M47 set | 23:12 | |
| Astrosession end | 04:44 | -62° |
| Moon Set | 04:47 | -62° |
| M47 rise | 12:42 |
Track M47 Position Throughout the Night
← Fri, 9 May 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M47 - Open Cluster
M47 is an open cluster located in the constellation Puppis. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and independently by Charles Messier in 1771. The cluster contains a rich population of young, hot stars.
M47 spans about 12 light-years across and contains around 50 stars. The cluster is approximately 1,600 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 4.4, making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies and easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope.
M47 Image Gallery
DSS Blue
DSS Red
DSS Near-Infrared
DSS Composite image
The photos are taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) under NASA contract, using data from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
Special thanks to the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the California Institute of Technology for their significant contributions.
Finder Chart for M47
| Object name | M47 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M47 coordinates | 7.60973, -14.48261 |
| Center coordinates | 7.60973, -14.48261 |
M47 Passage Through Night
Current position of M47
| Time | 04:44 |
| Latitude | 37.751 |
| Longitude | -97.822 |
| M47 elevation | -62° |
| M47 Azimuth | 40° |
Annual motion of M47
| Date | Sat, 10 May 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 22:07 |
| Twighlight end | 04:38 |
| Twighlight duration | 7h 31m |
| Rise | 12:42 |
| Set | 23:08 |
| Elevation at transit | 38° |
| Transit time | 17:55 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 07h 36m 35s", Dec: -14° 28' 57s |
| Magnitude | 4 |
| Constellation | Puppis |
The graph is structured with the vertical axis showing the hours of the day, ranging from 12 AM to 12 AM the next day, while the horizontal axis spans each day of the year.
The reddish shaded area indicates the periods when the M47 is above the horizon, visible to observers. The white line marks the times when the celestial object reaches its highest point in the sky each day, known as the transit.
Data Credits
The nebulae information on this page is sourced from the OpenNGC project, developed by Matteo Verga. OpenNGC provides detailed data on the NGC catalog, which is a valuable resource for exploring deep-sky objects such as nebulae.
For more details or to contribute to OpenNGC, visit the official GitHub repository: OpenNGC on GitHub.