Open cluster
M50 (M50)
In Monoceros (Mon) • Magnitude 5.9 • 16 arcminutes
Open the free AstroPlanner with M50 pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
A pretty open cluster in Monoceros whose stars form a roughly heart-shaped pattern, with a conspicuous red giant near the centre that contrasts with the surrounding blue-white stars. The red giant has evolved far faster than the rest of the cluster, offering a preview of the fate that eventually awaits most of the cluster's stars.
M50 at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M50, N 2323 |
| Type | Open cluster |
| Constellation | Monoceros (Mon) |
| Right ascension | 07h 03m 11s |
| Declination | -08° 20' 60" |
| Apparent magnitude | 5.90 |
| Angular size | 16.0 × 16.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 37° |
| Best imaging months | Oct, Nov, Dec |
How to image M50
M50 sits in the constellation Monoceros at right ascension 07h 03m 11s and declination -08° 20' 60". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.