On clear dark nights, M 41 is visible to the naked eye as a hazy patch virtually the size of the full moon.
Messier 41 lies approximately 2350 light years away in the Orion Bridge (Arm) of the galaxy in the constellation of Canis Major. Its size is around 25 light-years, and its luminosity about 8000 suns. The cluster's brightest star, located near the center, is a yellow-orange K3 giant about 700 times as luminous as the Sun. The age of M 41 is estimated to be somewhere between 190 and 240 million years.
50 x 15 sec stacked images with Deep Sky Stacker
Prime Focus – Celestron CPC 9.25
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