THE BEEHIVE

The Beehive Cluster (also called the "Praesepe"), Messier 44, lies in central Cancer within the asterim of "the Manger." At a distance of 570 light years, almost four times farther than the Hyades, this 750-million year old cluster appears smaller and fainter. The very bright body is Jupiter, which just happened to be passing by when the photo was taken. The orange color of the giant stars shows nicely. "Epsilon Cancri" was initially appled to the whole cluster. The giants within the cluster are labelled with their Flamsteed and (longer) HD numbers, the latter coming from the spectroscopic Henry Draper Catalogue.