THE BEEHIVE

The Beehive Cluster (also called the "Praesepe"), Messier 44, lies in central Cancer. At a distance of 595 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. "Epsilon Cancri" was initially appled to the whole cluster. The orange giants within the cluster are labelled with their Flamsteed and (longer) HD numbers, the latter coming from the spectroscopic Henry Draper Catalogue.