| Description | Messier's third entry on February 19, 1771, and a new discovery (#20 so far): "Cluster of very small [faint] stars, without nebulosity; this cluster is at a short distance from the three stars that form the beginning of the Unicorn's tail." As with M47, it was lost due to a calculation error that displaced the object by 5°. Caroline Herschel, sister of William, was the first to publish the object with the correct location in 1783, but did not associate it with M48. It was "found" by Oswald Thomas in 1934, and independently by T.F. Morris in 1959 who identified Messier's reversal of a sign in calculation. <--> I observed this because it was bright enough and far enough from the moon to image well, quickly. It's an attractive open cluster, but not an object I would ordinarily observe. |
