Little Beehive Cluster (Messier 41 / NGC 2287)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (716 pc), magnitude 4.5, central K3 II orange giant HD 49091, and Sirius finder guide for M41 in Canis Major.
Provenance-Backed Scientific Measurements
Every measurement below preserves its unit, uncertainty interval, observational method, reference epoch, quality status, and primary catalog source. See Uncertainty & Provenance for how competing measurements are handled.
| Parameter | Value | Uncertainty | Method & Epoch | Quality Status | Source Archive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrated visual magnitude (V) | 4.5 mag | ± 0.1 mag | Wide-aperture integrated photometry | definitive | Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) |
| Heliocentric distance | 2335 ly | ± 35 ly | Gaia DR3 astrometric parallax of ~650 members (716 ± 11 pc) (J2016.0) | definitive | ESA Gaia Archive — Data Release 3 |
| Apparent diameter | 38 arcmin | ± 3 arcmin | Member star-count boundary | high-confidence | Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) |
| Main-sequence turnoff age | 0.2 Gyr | ± 0.025 Gyr | Gaia DR3 turnoff & red-giant clump isochrone fitting | high-confidence | ESA Gaia Archive — Data Release 3 |
J2000 Equatorial Sky Chart & Culmination Altitude
The chart below plots Little Beehive Cluster (Messier 41 / NGC 2287) at RA 06h 46m 00.00s, Dec -20° 45′ 24.0″ within Canis Major, alongside peak meridian transit altitudes for 40°N and 30°S observers. Use the RA/Dec Coordinate Converter to compute exact culmination altitude for your latitude.
Astrophysical Context & Structure
Messier 41 (NGC 2287, the Little Beehive) is a brilliant winter open cluster located 2,335 light-years (716 ± 11 parsecs) away in Canis Major, hanging directly south of Sirius—the brightest star in the night sky. A passage in Aristotle's Meteorology (~325 BCE) describing a faint misty spot near the Dog's thigh may refer to M41, which would make it the faintest deep-sky object recorded in classical antiquity before Giovanni Battista Hodierna logged it prior to 1654 and Charles Messier cataloged it on January 16, 1765.
Spanning 38 arcminutes on the sky (larger than the full Moon) and about 26 light-years in physical diameter, M41 contains over 650 gravitationally bound stars and is roughly 200 million years old. At this evolutionary stage, stars of ~3.8 solar masses are currently peeling off the B8 V main-sequence turnoff to become luminous K- and G-type giants.
Foremost among those evolved stars is HD 49091 near the geometric center of M41: a K3 II–III orange-red bright giant shining at visual magnitude 6.9 with roughly 700 times the bolometric luminosity of the Sun, accompanied by several other golden-orange giants and chemically peculiar helium-weak B stars.
Practical Visual Observing Guide
- One of the easiest star-hops in the entire sky: center brilliant Sirius (α Canis Majoris) in your binoculars or finder and drop 4.0° directly south; M41 fits inside the same 5°–6° binocular field as Sirius.
- Visible to the naked eye at magnitude 4.5 under dark skies, and resolves into 25+ sparkling stars in 7×50 or 10×50 binoculars alongside the 6th-magnitude foreground star 12 Canis Majoris on its southeastern edge.
- In an 80–130 mm telescope at 25×–50×, trace the curving chains of blue-white B/A stars radiating outward from the vivid orange beacon of HD 49091 at the center.
Catalog Cross-Identifications & Aliases
Common Aliases: M41 · NGC 2287 · Little Beehive Cluster
| Catalog Authority | Identifier |
|---|---|
| MESSIER | M 41 |
| NGC | NGC 2287 |
| SIMBAD | M 41 |
| WIKIDATA | Q11402 |
Related Objects, Comparisons & Guides
Beehive Cluster (Messier 44 Praesepe)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (186.2 pc), magnitude 3.1, exoplanet hosts, and observing guide for the Beehive Cluster (M44 / NGC 2632).
Messier 47 (NGC 2422 Puppis Open Cluster)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (475 pc), magnitude 4.2, Messier sign-error history, and observing guide for Messier 47 in Puppis.
Messier 46 (NGC 2437 & NGC 2438 Planetary Pair)
Coordinates, Gaia DR3 distance (1.51 kpc), magnitude 6.1, superposed planetary nebula NGC 2438, and observing guide for M46 in Puppis.
Apparent vs Absolute Magnitude Explained
Understand the logarithmic Pogson astronomical magnitude scale, apparent visual magnitude (m), absolute magnitude (M at 10 parsecs), and bolometric corrections.
Celestial Coordinates (RA & Dec) Explained
Practical reference to J2000 equatorial coordinates: Right Ascension (RA in hours, minutes, seconds), Declination (Dec in degrees), and sexagesimal conversion.
Scientific Sources & Dataset Provenance
- ESA Gaia Archive — Data Release 3 (DR3 (2022-06-13)): Gaia Collaboration, Vallenari, A., et al. 2023, A&A, 674, A1 (Gaia Data Release 3) — European Space Agency / Gaia DPAC
- Revised New General Catalogue and Index Catalogue (RNGC/IC) (2024/2026 edition): Steinicke, W. 2010, Observing and Cataloguing Nebulae and Star Clusters (Cambridge Univ. Press); Verga, M. OpenNGC (CC-BY-SA 4.0 / data tables) — Wolfgang Steinicke / OpenNGC
- SIMBAD Astronomical Database (CDS) (2026-10 release): Wenger, M., et al. 2000, A&AS, 143, 9 (The SIMBAD astronomical database) — Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg