NGC 2516 (Southern Beehive / Diamond Cluster)
A bright and large open cluster in Carina, easily visible to the naked eye, often called the Diamond Cluster or Southern Beehive for its richness.
Open cluster in Carina. Magnitude 3.8.
Can you see it from Guyana?
From Georgetown (6.8° N) it climbs to 22° above the southern horizon at its highest; from Lethem (3.4° N), to 26° above the southern horizon. It is highest at midnight on the night of 17 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: Visible to the eye only from a dark site, as a hazy knot of stars; lost in city skies. From Guyana it only reaches 22° above the southern horizon, so you need a clear, low view south.
- 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 3.8. Brighter than the faintest stars Georgetown shows (4.3), and Lethem's (6.0).
- Distance: 1,330 light-years. The light reaching your eye left it about 1,300 years ago, around the year 730.
What it is made of
- Type
- Open cluster
- Distance
- Approx. 1,330 Lightyears
- True size
- Approx. 12 Lightyears across
- Age
- about 130 million years (range 73 million years to 250 million years)
- Notable
- Rich and close: 3,784 Gaia member stars at 1,330 light-years.
More deep-sky objects: IC 2391 (Omicron Velorum Cluster) · Southern Pleiades (IC 2602) · Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532) · Jewel Box Cluster (NGC 4755) · M93 (Open Cluster) · 47 Tucanae (NGC 104)