M41 Open Star Cluster in Canis Major

This large bright Open Star Cluster can be found about 4 degrees South of “Sirius”- Alpha Canis Majoris (The brightest star in the sky).

M41 looks fantastic in binoculars or any small telescope, as is definitely worth the view!

This one covers 1/2 a degree of Sky!

The cluster in our night sky fits into the size of the full moon on the sky. It contains about 100 stars, including several red giants(orange) the brightest of which has spectral type K3, apparent magnitude 6.3 and is near the center, and some white dwarfs. Some Blue Giants can be seen as well. The cluster is estimated to be moving

away from us at 23.3 km/s. The diameter of the cluster is 25–26 light-years (7.7–8.0 pc). It is estimated to be 190 million years old.

I captured this with my Explore Scientific 102mm Triplet APO telescope, Bisque ME Mount, and QHY183C Cooled Color Cmos Camera,

30 minutes total integration time(6 x 300sec sub exposures) on 01-13-2021.