M67 (Open Cluster)
An ancient open cluster in Cancer, one of the oldest known, with an estimated age similar to the Sun. Visible with binoculars as a hazy patch, resolved in small telescopes.
Open cluster in Cancer. Magnitude 6.1.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 85° above the northern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 82° above the northern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 31 Jan, in the middle of its season. The page works out tonight's rise, highest point and set for both towns in Guyana time (UTC-4), and where the Moon is.
What you'll see
- Your eyes: Not visible to the eye.
- 10x50 binoculars: Resolves into dozens of stars.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): Dozens to hundreds of stars at low power.
- A camera: Spans about 40% of an APS-C frame at 1,000 mm (field 1.3° × 0.9°); needs a tracking mount.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 30′, 96% of the Moon's width (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Brightness: magnitude 6.1. Fainter than the faintest stars in Georgetown (4.3) and Lethem (6.0): binoculars or a telescope.
- Distance: 2,730 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 2,700 years ago.
What it is made of
- Type
- Open cluster
- Distance
- Approx. 2,730 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 24 Lightyears across
- Age
- about 1.7 billion years (range 1.2 billion years to 2.6 billion years)
- Notable
- Old for an open cluster: about 1.7 billion years, older than 95% of the 7,168 clusters in the Gaia DR3 catalogue.
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More deep-sky objects: Beehive Cluster (M44) · M46 (Open Cluster) & NGC 2438 (Planetary Nebula) · Christmas Tree Cluster & Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) · M47 (Open Cluster) · M93 (Open Cluster) · Open Cluster M35