NGC 2627 is an open star cluster in the faint southern constellation of Pyxis, the Mariner’s Compass. Sitting just shy of 6,000 light-years away, the cluster is best viewed from the southern hemisphere, though observers at mid-northern latitudes can catch it low in the south during late winter and spring evenings.
The Mariner’s Compass
Before reaching for NGC 2627, it’s worth pausing on its host constellation. Pyxis takes its name from the Latin Pyxis Nautica for “mariner’s compass.” The constellation was introduced by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille during his survey of the southern skies in 1751–52.
Image credit: Stellarium
The brightest stars in Pyxis are only of fourth magnitude, and there are no legends associated with them, as the magnetic compass was completely unknown to the ancient Greeks.
The Cluster
NGC 2627 has an integrated visual magnitude of 8.4 and spans an angular size of 11.0 arcminutes. Around 15 stars are visible when viewed through binoculars under darker skies. It carries a Trumpler class of III 2m, which means it is generally average in appearance with no noticeable concentration of stars toward the center. Don’t let that discourage you — there is beauty here in an evenly distributed field of faint stars like this one.
What makes NGC 2627 scientifically interesting is its age. The cluster is intermediate-aged, around 1.4 billion years old. Also, a recent 2024 study using ultraviolet observations from AstroSat has taken a closer look at NGC 2627, identifying more than 400 likely member stars and uncovering a small but fascinating population of unusual objects, including blue stragglers, a yellow straggler, and binary systems.
First and Early Observations
William Herschel first recorded it on March 3, 1793. Later, his son John Herschel observed it twice. He recorded it once from Slough, England, in 1831, and again during his expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in 1835, where he noted it as a fine, rich, and irregularly elongated cluster.
J. L. E. Dreyer, who compiled the New General Catalogue, described NGC 2627 as “a cluster, considerably large, pretty rich, pretty compressed, stars from 11th to 13th magnitude.”
My Observations
Observation on March 20, 2026, at 11:40 a.m. from Tampa, FL
Due to Pyxis riding low along the southern horizon—and the soft wash of haze and light rising up from Tampa—the cluster never quite separates itself from the surrounding scatter of stars in the eyepiece. It’s there, but it doesn’t stand apart.
Because of that, I turned to the Seestar S50 to draw it out more clearly.
Key Stats
| Constellation | Pyxis |
| Best Viewing | Winter–Early Spring |
| Visual Magnitude | +8.4 |
| Distance from Earth | ~5,990 light years |
| Apparent Size | 11 arcmin |
| Milky Way Location | Orion Spur |
| My Viewing Grade | B- |
| Other Designations | NGC 2627 |
Sources and Notes
Dreyer, J. L. E. (1888). New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. Royal Astronomical Society.
Piatti, A. E., et al. (2003). Intermediate-age Galactic open clusters: fundamental parameters of NGC 2627. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 346(2), 390–402. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2966.2003.07061.x
Ridpath, I. (n.d.). Star Tales — Pyxis. http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/pyxis.html
Saketh, P., Panthi, A., & Vaidya, K. (2024). UOCS XIV: Study of the open cluster NGC 2627 using UVIT/AstroSat. The Astronomical Journal, 168(3), 97. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad5a96
Siegel, M. H., et al. (2019). The Swift UVOT Stars Survey. III. Photometry and Color-Magnitude Diagrams of 103 Galactic Open Clusters. The Astronomical Journal, 158(1), 35. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ab21e1
Sketch and Seestar image by Wayne McGraw
The Garden Astronomer 