M48 Observation Details
M48 Daily Motion
M48 will be visible until June, 12, 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.
M48 Visibility Timetable on December 21
Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Astrosession begin | 19:17 | -13° |
| M48 rise | 20:10 | |
| Moon Rise, 59.2% illuminated | 23:21 | 48° |
| M48 transit | 02:09 | 84° |
| Astrosession end | 04:39 | 52° |
| Civil sunrise | 05:32 | 39° |
| Sunrise | 05:56 | 33° |
| M48 set | 08:08 | |
| Moon Set | 11:41 | -53° |
Track M48 Position Throughout the Night
← Sat, 21 December 2024 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M48 - Open Cluster
M48 is an open cluster located in the constellation Hydra. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771. The cluster contains a mix of young, hot stars and older stars.
M48 spans about 23 light-years across and contains around 80 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.
M48 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 M48
| Object name | M48 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M48 coordinates | 8.22866, -5.75044 |
| Center coordinates | 8.22866, -5.75044 |
M48 Passage Through Night
Current position of M48
| Time | 16:09 |
| Latitude | 0 |
| Longitude | 0 |
| M48 elevation | -60° |
| M48 Azimuth | -101° |
Annual motion of M48
| Date | Sun, 22 December 2024 |
| Twighlight start | 19:14 |
| Twighlight end | 04:35 |
| Twighlight duration | 9h 21m |
| Rise | 20:06 |
| Set | 08:04 |
| Elevation at transit | 84° |
| Transit time | 02:05 |
| Equatorial coordinate | RA: 08h 13m 43s", Dec: -5° 45' 01s |
| Magnitude | 6 |
| Constellation | Hydra |
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 M48 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.