M44 is likely one of the heavens’ largest, brightest, and nearest open star clusters — a surprise accessible to stargazers of all talent ranges. This enticing swarm of stars is seen to the unaided eye as a nebulous patch unfold throughout 1° of sky, showing just like the elongated head of a comet passing via the center of Most cancers the Crab. Identified all through antiquity, Third-magnitude M44 outshines all the celebrities of Most cancers by a full magnitude, making Most cancers the one constellation wherein a deep-sky object is extra conspicuous than the constellation itself.
Ptolemy wrote that this mystifying mist was the “heart of the cloud-shaped convolutions within the breast [of the Crab], referred to as Praesepe.” One of many earliest monikers for the cluster, Praesepe is derived from the Latin phrase presepio, which suggests “manger,” referring to the straw-filled manger of the toddler Christ. If M44 represents the straw, it’s guarded by the 2 aselli (Latin for “donkeys”) — the Fifth-magnitude Gamma (γ) and 4th-magnitude Delta (δ) Cancri.
Galileo first resolved M44 right into a mass of 40 stars together with his primitive telescope — a view much like that via at this time’s handheld binoculars. However the grouping’s extra common identify, the Beehive Cluster, involves us from the English observer John Herschel, who, in his 1833 Treatise on Astronomy, tells us that the Praesepe resolves right into a swarm of stars with an “abnormal evening glass.” Thus, correctly talking, the Praesepe refers back to the naked-eye view, whereas the Beehive refers back to the telescopic view — which, via even the smallest of telescopes, reveals a swarm of nervous starlight.
M44, which is situated some 515 light-years away, is a group of at the very least 1,000 stars. Most are too dim to see; about 200 vary in brightness from sixth to 14th magnitude, 80 of that are brighter than magnitude 10. Eager-eyed observers have resolved a number of of the brightest stars with their unaided eyes. The 600-million-year-old cluster stretches throughout 15 light-years of space.
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