How to Find These Clusters

The black circles (visible in the expanded view of the chart at left) show the size of a typical finderscope's field of view (5°) and a typical telescope's view with a low-power eyepiece (1°). This indicates how much of the map you'll see in your eyepiece. Next, figure out directions. North is up and east is left on the map. To find which way is north in your view, nudge your telescope slightly toward Polaris; new sky enters the view from the north edge. Turn the map around to match. (If you're using a right-angle star diagonal at the eyepiece, it probably gives a mirror image. Take out the diagonal to see a correct image that will match the map.)

Selected Winter Open Clusters
Object	Magnitude	Distance (light-years)	R.A. (2000) h   m	Dec. °   '
M50	5.9	3,000	7 03.2	-  8 20
M47	4.4	1,400	7 36.6	-14 30
M46	6.1	5,000	7 41.8	-14 49
NGC 2423	6.7	2,800	7 37.1	-13 52
M48	5.8	2,000	8 13.8	-  5 48