The distance to M52 is not well known, and estimates range from a distance of about 3,900 light-years to about 5,000 light-years away. M52 has a diameter of about 15 to 19 light-years. The brightest member of the star cluster is a magnitude 8.2 yellow G-type giant, while most of the stars are blue-white B3 main sequence stars. M52 has an estimated age of 35 million years to about 50 million years old.

This image was taken with a Canon 40D DSLR and 8" Ritchey Chretien Astrograph @ F/8. Exposure settings are 15 X 2 minutes @ ISO 1600. Images captured,aligned and stacked in Nebulosity and processed in Images Plus and Photoshop CS5.