a timescale of 7 years, which is comparable with the solar magnetic activity cycle.

Section 2 describes the observations, data analysis and identification of X-ray sources with members of NGC 2547. Section 3 deals with spectral analysis of the X-ray data, whilst section 4 uses the spectral information to calculate intrinsic luminosities and search for evidence of dynamo-related activity. Section 5 looks at the X-ray variability of NGC 2547 members, both within the observation (flares, rotational modulation) and on the longer 7 year timescale. Section 6 places NGC 2547 in context with younger and older clusters and discusses the evolution of X-ray activity, coronal temperatures and coronal variability. Our conclusions appear in section 7.

Observations and Data Analysis
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NGC 2547 was observed by [*XMM-Newton*]{} between UT 23:16:33 on 2 April 2002 and UT 13:17:53 on 3 April 2002 using the EPIC instrument, for a nominal exposure time of 49.4ks. The two EPIC-MOS cameras and the EPIC-pn camera were operated in full frame mode (Turner et al. 2001; Strüder et al. 2001), using the medium filter to reject optical light. The nominal pointing position of the observation was RA$=08$h10m12.0s, Dec$=-49$d13m0.0s (J2000.0). As we shall show in subsequent sections (2.1, 2.2 