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Observing Beehive Cluster (M44)
The Beehive Cluster 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.
What Beehive Cluster is
The Beehive Cluster 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 astronomer Ptolemy described it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer". It was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope.
How to observe it
This is a naked-eye or binocular object under a dark sky. Any telescope shows it, and a low-power, wide-field eyepiece gives the most pleasing view.
It lies in the constellation Cancer. To find it, learn the constellation first, then star-hop from its brighter stars with a finder or a wide-field eyepiece before switching to more magnification.
Magnification is your telescope's focal length divided by your eyepiece's focal length. For an extended object like this, start low to frame it, then step up in power only if the object takes it. Use the Fit My Telescope tool to see the exact magnification, true field and exit pupil each of your eyepieces gives.
How it looks at the eyepiece
What you see at the eyepiece is fainter and less colourful than a photograph, because the eye takes in light in an instant while a camera builds it up over minutes. Expect a grey glow rather than the vivid colours of an image, and let your eyes dark-adapt for at least twenty minutes to see the most.
This object is the Beehive Cluster, a large naked-eye open cluster in Cancer, which makes it a rewarding target once you have found it.
Frame it at low to medium power first with a wide true field, then step up the magnification only if the object stays sharp and the sky is steady. The Fit My Telescope tool shows the magnification, true field of view and exit pupil each of your eyepieces gives in your telescope, so you can pick the one that frames the object best.
The object in NASA imagery
NASA has imaged this object. One example in the NASA Image and Video Library is titled Bees in the Beehive, from JPL.
This image of the Beehive star cluster points out the location of its first known planets, Pr0201b and Pr0211b, or, as astronomers call them, the first b in the Beehive.
NASA imagery is in the public domain. What you see through an eyepiece is fainter and mostly grey, since the eye does not accumulate light the way a long-exposure camera does, but knowing an object's true shape helps you recognise it at the telescope.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Object type | open cluster |
| Constellation | Cancer |
| Apparent magnitude | 3.7 |
| Catalogue | Messier 44 (M44) |
Object data from Wikidata (CC0) and standard Messier catalogues.
What magnification suits M44?
Open the Fit My Telescope toolSee the true field and exit pupil each eyepiece givesFind telescope eyepiece on eBayaffiliateRelated
Sources: Beehive Cluster (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA) · Wikidata (CC0) · NASA Image and Video Library: PIA15801 (public domain)