M34 Observation Details
M34 Daily Motion
M34 will rise at 14:39, reaching 41° when twilight begins at 18:50. It will reach transit at 47° by 20:38 and will set before twilight ends at 02:37.M34 will be visible until March, 5, when it will move too close to the Sun. During this time, its proximity to the Sun will cause it to disappear from the night sky, making it unobservable for a while.
M34 Visibility Timetable on December 21
Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| M34 rise | 14:39 | |
| Sunset | 18:00 | 35° |
| Civil sunset | 18:24 | 38° |
| Astrosession begin | 19:17 | 44° |
| M34 transit | 20:38 | 47° |
| Moon Rise, 59.2% illuminated | 23:21 | 34° |
| M34 set | 02:37 | |
| Astrosession end | 04:39 | -22° |
| Moon Set | 11:41 | -30° |
Track M34 Position Throughout the Night
← Sat, 21 December 2024 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M34 - Open Cluster
M34 is an open cluster located in the constellation Perseus. It was discovered by Giovanni Battista Hodierna before 1654 and independently by Charles Messier in 1764. The cluster contains a mix of young, hot stars and older stars.
M34 spans about 14 light-years across and contains around 100 stars. The cluster is approximately 1,500 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 5.5, making it visible to the naked eye under dark skies and easily seen with binoculars or a small telescope.
M34 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 M34
| Object name | M34 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M34 coordinates | 2.70206, 42.74614 |
| Center coordinates | 2.70206, 42.74614 |
M34 Passage Through Night
Current position of M34
| Time | 16:12 |
| Latitude | 0 |
| Longitude | 0 |
| M34 elevation | 17° |
| M34 Azimuth | -45° |
Annual motion of M34
| Date | Sun, 22 December 2024 |
| Twighlight start | 19:14 |
| Twighlight end | 04:35 |
| Twighlight duration | 9h 21m |
| Rise | 14:35 |
| Set | 02:33 |
| Elevation at transit | 47° |
| Transit time | 20:34 |
| Equatorial coordinate | RA: 02h 42m 07s", Dec: 42° 44' 46s |
| Magnitude | 5 |
| Constellation | Perseus |
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 M34 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.