Monday, April 14, 2025

The Beehive Cluster (evening)

The faint constellation of Cancer, the Crab hosts the large and richly populated open star cluster known as the Beehive, Praesepe the Manger, Messier 44, and NGC 2632. The cluster, which is visible with unaided eyes, on moonless nights as a large fuzzy patch twice the diameter of the full moon, has been known since antiquity. Galileo was able to use his small telescope to resolve about 40 of its 1,000 stars. It looks best in binoculars and low magnification telescope eyepieces, which can reveal a number of prominent blue and golden stars sprinkled across its core and the misty population of smaller stars between and around them.

(Data Courtesy of Starry Night)
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