The open star cluster NGC 2451 (mag 2.8) in Puppis will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 17 January it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day.
From South El Monte , it is difficult to observe as it will appear no higher than 17° above the horizon. It is visible between 22:27 and 01:08. It will become accessible at around 22:27, when it rises to an altitude of 15° above your southern horizon. It will reach its highest point in the sky at 23:47, 17° above your southern horizon. It will become inaccessible at around 01:08 when it sinks below 15° above your southern horizon.
At a declination of 37°58'S, it is easiest to see from the southern hemisphere but cannot be seen from latitudes much north of 32°N.
At magnitude 2.8, NGC2451 is visible to the naked eye, but best viewed through a pair of binoculars.
The position of NGC2451 is as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| NGC2451 | 07h45m10s | 37°58'S | Puppis | 2.8 | 37'30" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 17 Jan 2019
| The sky on 17 January 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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91% 11 days old |
All times shown in PST.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Image credit
© Digitised Sky Survey (DSS); Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II)