Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Cancer (Cnc)  ·  Contains:  Beehive cluster  ·  M 44  ·  NGC 2632  ·  Praesepe
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M44 Beehive Cluster, Richard Pattie
M44 Beehive Cluster
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M44 Beehive Cluster

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M44 Beehive Cluster, Richard Pattie
M44 Beehive Cluster
Powered byPixInsight

M44 Beehive Cluster

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Description

This was one of my first tries with the Meade LX90 8" on an AVX mount. Guiding with short exposures was good, but I could have used many more. The star spikes were created with the Star Tools Photoshop plugin...just for fun.

The Beehive Cluster, also known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger"), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189, is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. It is one of the nearest open clusters to the Solar System, and it contains a larger star population than most other nearby clusters. Under dark skies the Beehive Cluster looks like a nebulous object to the naked eye; thus it has been known since ancient times. The classical astronomer Ptolemy called it "the nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer," and it was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope. (Source: Wikipedia)

M44 is 600-700 million years old, is about 600 ly distant, and is observable in the Northern hemisphere from February through May.

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M44 Beehive Cluster, Richard Pattie