Messier 44 (Cancer)

Fig. 1 - One of the very best binocular clusters: The open star cluster Messier 44 in the constellation Cancer, photographed with a Teleskop-Service (TS) 65mm Quadruplet Astrograph on a ZWO AM5 mount.

Fig. 1 - One of the very best binocular clusters: The open star cluster Messier 44 in the constellation Cancer, photographed with a Teleskop-Service (TS) 65mm Quadruplet Astrograph on a ZWO AM5 mount.


Object name:Constellation:Coordinates:Apparent size:Visual brightness:
Messier 44Cancer08h40m / +19°59'95'3.7 mag


The open cluster Messier 44 ("Beehive Cluster", "Praesepe", NGC 2632, Cr 189) in the constellation Cancer. Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times. It contains around 1,000 stars and is 520–610 light-years from Earth. Age and proper motion coincide with those of the open cluster 'The Hyades', suggesting they may share similar origins (source: Wikipedia).

Twenty-five 5-minute exposures (125 minutes total exposure) at gain 100 and -10°C, taken on February 3 / 4, 2024, were added for this shot with Astro Pixel Processor (APP) software and the final image processing was done in Photoshop. Darks, flats, bias and darkflats were used.

Equipment: Cooled ASI 2600MC Pro camera, Teleskop-Service (TS) 65mm f/6.5 Quadruplet Astrograph riding on a ZWO AM5 Strain Wave Mount, ZWO 30 mm Mini Guide Scope with an ASI 290MM Mini guide camera, ASIAIR Plus.

Fig. 2 - Search chart for Messier 44. Copyright 2025 'The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project', www.siaris.net.

Fig. 2 - Search chart for Messier 44. Copyright 2025 'The Mag-7 Star Atlas Project', www.siaris.net.

C2022 E3 ZTFM45