M52 Observation Details
M52 Daily Motion
M52 will be visible throughout the entire night. It will rise at 20:54, just before twilight begins, and will be at 20° when twilight starts at 00:03. It will reach its transit at 28° at 02:53, and will fade away as twilight ends at 06:15, being at 18° elevation.M52 will be visible until January, 1, 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.
M52 Visibility Timetable on August 13
M52 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Astrosession begin | 20:19 | -4° |
| M52 rise | 20:54 | |
| Moon Rise, 75.6% illuminated | 22:41 | 12° |
| M52 transit | 02:53 | 28° |
| Astrosession end | 05:50 | 20° |
| Civil sunrise | 06:39 | 15° |
| Sunrise | 07:02 | 13° |
| M52 set | 08:52 | |
| Moon Set | 11:07 | -15° |
Track M52 Position Throughout the Night
← Wed, 13 August 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M52 - Open Cluster
M52 is an open cluster located in the constellation Cassiopeia. It was discovered by Charles Messier in 1774. The cluster contains a rich population of young, hot stars.
M52 spans about 19 light-years across and contains around 200 stars. The cluster is approximately 5,000 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 7.3, making it visible with binoculars or a small telescope.
M52 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 M52
| Object name | M52 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M52 coordinates | 23.41344, 61.59317 |
| Center coordinates | 23.41344, 61.59317 |
M52 Passage Through Night
Current position of M52
| Time | 00:03 |
| Latitude | 0 |
| Longitude | 0 |
| M52 elevation | 20° |
| M52 Azimuth | -20° |
Annual motion of M52
| Date | Thu, 14 August 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 20:15 |
| Twighlight end | 05:45 |
| Twighlight duration | 9h 30m |
| Rise | 20:50 |
| Set | 08:48 |
| Elevation at transit | 28° |
| Transit time | 02:49 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 23h 24m 48s", Dec: 61° 35' 35s |
| Magnitude | 7 |
| Constellation | Cassiopeia |
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 M52 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.