The Beehive Star Cluster—Messier 44: View from France

The Beehive Star Cluster—Messier 44: View from France

Astrophotographer Jean Jacquinot: "M44 and the beauty of star spikes. Difficult not to dream don't you think?"

The Beehive Cluster (also known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger", "cot" or "crib"), M44, NGC 2632, or Cr 189) is an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. One of the nearest open clusters to Earth, it contains a larger population of stars than other nearby bright open clusters holding around 1,000 stars. Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times. Classical Greco-Roman astronomer Claudius Ptolemy described it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer". It was among the first objects that Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei studied with his telescope.

Image Credit: Jean Jacquinot
Release Date: Feb. 25, 2017

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