THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44) (Drew Evans)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Cancer (Cnc) · Contains: 38 Cnc · 39 Cnc · 40 Cnc · 41 eps Cnc · 42 Cnc · Beehive · HD73161 · HD73174 · HD73175 · HD73294 · HD73345 · HD73397 · HD73430 · HD73449 · HD73450 · HD73574 · HD73576 · HD73598 · HD73616 · HD73618 · HD73619 · HD73709 · HD73710 · HD73711 · HD73712 · HD73729 · HD73730 · HD73746 · HD73763 · HD73798 · And 21 more.

Powered byPixInsight

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

Powered byPixInsight

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

The beautiful open star cluster M44 (The Beehive) in the constellation of Cancer.

A mere 600 light-years away, M44 is one of the closest star clusters to our solar system. Also known as the Praesepe, its stars are young though, about 600 million years old compared to our Sun's 4.5 billion years. Based on similar ages and motion through space, M44 and the even closer Hyades star cluster in Taurus are thought to have been born together in the same large molecular cloud.

An open cluster spanning some 15 light-years, M44 holds 1,000 stars or so and covers about 3 full moons (1.5 degrees) on the sky in the constellation Cancer. Visible to the unaided eye, M44 has been recognized since antiquity.

Described as a faint cloud or celestial mist long before being included as the 44th entry in Charles Messier's 18th century catalog, the cluster was not resolved into its individual stars until telescopes were available. The cluster's few yellowish tinted, cool, red giants are scattered through the field of its brighter hot blue main sequence stars.

Captured in 6.2 hours (124 x 180 seconds) in Bortle Class 4 skies near downtown Flagstaff, Arizona.

OTA: Explore Scientific FCD100 Series 127mm f/7.5 Carbon Fiber Triplet ED APO Refractor
Mount: Celestron CGX-L
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC Pro
Gain: 100
Cooling Temperature: -10 degrees celsius
Filter: Astronomik L3 Luminance filter
Auto-guiding: ZWO ASI174MM Mini and ZWO M48 OAG
Control: ZWO ASIAIR Pro
Calibrated in Astro Pixel Processor ⁣ with darks and flats
Processed in Pixinsight and Lightroom. Star refraction spikes added using 1.5mm clear string in front of objective lens.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	5465590
PixInsight job	1SHWNQ56XYYTSHO9OD723SQ91939ZMC1
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	08h40m28s.94
RA (top/left)	08h44m45s.99
RA (top/right)	08h39m32s.50
RA (bottom/right)	08h36m11s.92
RA (bottom/left)	08h41m24s.63

Dec (center)	+19°39′06″.4
Dec (top/left)	+19°38′17″.5
Dec (top/right)	+20°38′12″.3
Dec (bottom/right)	+19°39′36″.10
Dec (bottom/left)	+18°40′04″.10

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

		...
You have no new notifications.

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

THE BEEHIVE CLUSTER (M44)

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information