Celestial Objects
Messier 48
Star Clusters
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Messier 48, also known as M48 or NGC 2548, is an open cluster of stars in the constellation Hydra, lying near Hydra's western limit with Monoceros, to the east and slightly south of Hydra's brightest star Alphard. Charles Messier recorded the cluster in 1771 but made an error in its position, as he also did with Messier 47, and credit for its discovery is sometimes given instead to Caroline Herschel in 1783; her nephew John Herschel described it as a superb cluster filling the whole field with stars of the ninth through thirteenth magnitude.
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