Messier 48 - Open Cluster

Messier 48, also known as NGC 2548, is an open cluster of stars in the equatorial constellation of Hydra. It sits near Hydra's westernmost limit with Monoceros, about 18° 34′ to the east and slightly south of Hydra's brightest star, Alphard. This grouping was discovered by Charles Messier in 1771, but there is no cluster precisely where Messier indicated; he made an error, as he did with M47. The value that he gave for the right ascension matches, however, his declination is off by five degrees. Credit for discovery is sometimes given instead to Caroline Herschel in 1783. Her nephew John Herschel described it as, "a superb cluster which fills the whole field; stars of 9th and 10th to the 13th magnitude – and none below, but the whole ground of the sky on which it stands is singularly dotted over with infinitely minute points".

Messier 48 is visible to the naked eye under good atmospheric conditions. The brightest member is the star HIP 40348 at visual magnitude 8.3. The cluster is located some 2,500 light-years from the Sun.

Equipment:
OTA: Meade ETX-60AT 60mm Refractor (f/5.8).
Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Pro Cooled Color Camera (20.1mp)
40x15s subs (10 minutes) captured with SharpCap 4.1 with Darks.
Processed with GraXpert 3.0.2 and Siril.