NGC 2467 (Nebula and Cluster)
A glowing cloud in Puppis lit by Haffner 18, a cluster only about 4 million years old, about 14,000 light-years away. Its catalogued outline, Sharpless 311, is 45 arcminutes across.
Nebula and star cluster in Puppis.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 57° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 60° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 16 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. It lies 4.0° south-west of Tureis.
- 10x50 binoculars: A faint glow around a star, from a dark site.
- A small telescope (80 to 100 mm): A faint glow around a bright star; a UHC or OIII filter helps.
- A camera: Spans about 40% of an APS-C frame at 800 mm (field 1.7° × 1.1°); needs a tracking mount. An H-alpha-sensitive (modified) camera brings out its red glow.
How big, how bright, how far
- Size on the sky: 45′, 1.4 Moons across (the Moon is about 31′ wide).
- Distance: 14,000 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 14,000 years ago.
- True size: 180 light-years across its catalogued outline; light crosses it in 180 years.
What it is made of
- Type
- Emission nebula with a young cluster
- Mass
- About 300 times the Sun's mass, in the stars of its cluster Haffner 18
- Age
- About 4.1 million years (range 2.5 million years to 6 million years), the age of Haffner 18
- Notable
- Its glow also holds a second young cluster, Haffner 19, and the massive young star HD 64315 shapes much of it.
What is in it, not measured:
- Ionised hydrogen: glows red where hot stars light it
- Helium and heavier gases: with traces of oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur
- Dust: in dark lanes
- Young hot stars: that light it
How we know: Distance from Gaia parallaxes of the stars of Haffner 18, the cluster inside it: Hunt & Reffert 2024, A&A 686, A42 (Gaia DR3 cluster catalogue, VizieR J/A+A/686/A42), retrieved 2026-10-21: Haffner 18 (also listed as NGC 2467-east) 4,280 pc; statistical 13,572-14,370 ly (16th-84th percentile); Gaia DR3 parallax zero-point systematics (about 0.02 mas) add about 9%. True size: the apparent size times the distance (apparent size: Sharpless 1959, ApJS 4, 257 (VizieR VII/20), Sh2-311). Mass: Hunt & Reffert 2024, A&A 686, A42 (Gaia DR3 cluster catalogue, VizieR J/A+A/686/A42), retrieved 2026-10-21, Haffner 18 (also listed as NGC 2467-east): total 298 ± 13 Suns.
More deep-sky objects: M93 (Open Cluster) · NGC 2362 (Open Cluster) · NGC 2451 (Open Clusters) · M46 (Open Cluster) & NGC 2438 (Planetary Nebula) · NGC 2477 (Open Cluster) · M47 (Open Cluster)