NGC 2477

Right Ascension	07 : 52.3 (h:m)
Declination	-38 : 33 (deg:m)
Distance	4.2 (kly)
Visual Brightness	5.8 (mag)
Apparent Dimension	27 (arc min)

Discovered by Lacaille 1751-52.

This cluster was discovered by Abbe Lacaille when he was in South Africa during 1751-1752.

Burnham states this is "probably the finest of the galactic clusters in Puppis," but not in Messier's catalog and many other observing lists as it is situated to much south. However, where it comes sufficiently high over the horizon, it is a splendid rich cluster of over 300 stars, crowded in a 20' field, situated about 2.5 deg NW from 2.25 mag, extremely hot O5 supergiant Zeta Puppis (this star, at 2,400 light years distance, is one of the brightest stars known, with absolute mag -7.1, corresponding to 60,000 solar luminosities).

The brightest star of NGC 2477 is of mag 9.81, the hottest of spectral type B8. The cluster's age has been estimated at about 700 million years (Sky Catalog 2000).

In the Astronomical League's Southern Sky Binocular Club list. Caldwell 71 in Patrick Moore's list.

Observing Reports for NGC 2477 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

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Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

Last Modification: 21 Mar 1998, 14:10 MET