Alpha Persei Moving Cluster, Mel 20

Open Cluster Melotte 20 (= Collinder 39) in Perseus

The Alpha Persei Moving Cluster

Right Ascension 03 : 22 (h:m)
Declination +49 : (deg:m)
Distance 0.601 (kly)
Visual Brightness 1.2 (mag)
Apparent Dimension 185 (arc min)

Cataloged by Hodierna before 1654.

This moving cluster was probably first cataloged as a nebulous object by Hodierna. It was described as stellar group by Eddington 1910, and cataloged by Melotte 1915.

The distance of this cluster has recently been measured by ESA's Hipparcos satellite, as 601 light years (previously, it had been thought to be at 554 light years).

  • Jean-Claude Mermilliod's WEBDA cluster page for the Alpha Persei cluster, Mel 20
  • SIMBAD Data of the Alpha Persei cluster, Mel 20
  • Observing Reports for Mel 20 (IAAC Netastrocatalog)

    Hartmut Frommert (spider@seds.org)
    Christine Kronberg (smil@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)

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    Last Modification: 8 Mar 1998, 21:15 MET