#messier 44

[cosmonautroger]

Messier 44

[anothercloudynight]

Messier 44 , NGC 2632 or The Beehive Cluster .

Distance to Earth: 577,3 ly

Constellation Cancer

February 13,2023 -Montcada i Reixac-

[kuiperkat]

Stargazing Or Die Trying

This evening, I had a solid observing session. Given all the light pollution, and less than perfect skies, I’m still pretty darn proud of how these turned out. 

Mercury (photo 1-2): first photo was taken with iPhone XR using the NightCap app. Second was with the Canon M50. This little planet just happens to be my favorite. The length of a day on Mercury is about 59 Earth days, but a year is only 88 Earth days, making it the worst place for Monday to possibly exist. 

M44, the Beehive Cluster (partial): these bees aren’t bees. They don’t make honey, but they are known to host these sweet exoplanets known as Hot Jupiters; massive gas giants that closely orbit their home stars. 

M13, the Hercules Cluster: in the 1970’s, we beamed a ‘WYD?’ message towards this massive cluster, from the Arecibo Observatory, with our location and our deets. It’s unknown if M13 ever received our message; if so, it left us on ‘Read’. 

Arcturus: located in the constellation Böotes, its official abbreviation is Alpha Boo, which is kind of hilarious. The light emitted from this red giant is about 37 years old, and its the fourth brightest in the night sky.

Every photo with the exception of the first one was taken with Canon M50 camera, using a Celestron 6SE telescope. Edited in PS Express.

[therealuniverse]

The Beehive Cluster (Messier 44) M44 is an open cluster in Cancer is an excellent deep sky object (DSO) to observe as it can be seen even from fairly polluted skies with binoculars or a small telescope. With a magnitude of 3.1 the Beehive Cluster has been seen and known since ancient times. It was one of the first objects reported to be observed by Galileo in 1609.

The Beehive, at a distance of 520 light years, is faintly visible as a large nebulous patch even to the naked eye in darker skies. With a basic pair of binoculars the cluster resolves into a beautiful V-shape measuring more than 1° across. Several multiple stars are visible at lower powers. Most telescopes don't offer a wide enough view to show the cluster in its entirety making the view through binoculars perfect for such a large object. The bright star in the lower left of the cluster is Delta Cancri. The one in the upper left is Gamma Cancri. -JMP M44 observational impression: JMP M44 Information: http://messier.seds.org/m/m044.html Image credit: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bf64580dfb9f301a0949e60106526057.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-6_watermark_text-Copyright_Intihuatana.jpg#/media/File:Bf64580dfb9f301a0949e60106526057.1824x0_q100_watermark_watermark_opacity-10_watermark_position-6_watermark_text-Copyright_Intihuatana.jpg

[spacettf]

M44 and the beauty of star spikes by Jean Jacquinot Via Flickr: A test of M44 with star spikes using Starspikes pro. Difficult not to dream don't you think? Same data as my previous photo: www.flickr.com/photos/trois_merlettes/32725471080/in/date...

[quiltofstars]

The Beehive Cluster, M44 // Guillermo Cervantes Mosqueda

[quiltofstars]

The Beehive Cluster (M44) and Mars (right) // Jim Vaughan

[quiltofstars]

The Beehive Cluster, M44 // Valerio Pardi