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.
Altogether, the cluster contains at least 1000 gravitationally bound stars, for a total mass of about 500–600 Solar masses. A recent survey counts 1010 high-probability members, of which 68% are M dwarfs, 30% are Sun-like stars of spectral classes F, G, and K, and about 2% are bright stars of spectral class A. Also present are five giant stars, four of which have spectral class K0 III and the fifth G0 III.
| Object | M44 Open Star Cluster |
| Constellation: | Cancer |
| Position: | RA 08h 40m 24s Dec 19° 40' 00'' |
| Apparent Size: | 95 arcmins |
| Apparent Magnitude: | 3.7 |
| Distance in light years: | 610 ly |
| Photo Data | |
| Date: | 16./17.4.2021 |
| Location: |
El Sauce Observatory Chile (1525m ASL) GPS: 30.472529° S, 70.762999° W |
| Telescope: | CHI-2-CCD: ASA500N f3.8/1900mm |
| Camera: | FLI PL16803 / 9μm 4096x4096px @ T sensor = -35.0°C |
| Field of View: | 1.1° x 1.1° |
| Pixel Scale/Resolution: | 0.98 arcsec/px |
| Expose frames/times: | L 2x600s, R 2x600s, G 2x600s, B 2x600s |
| Total expose: | 1h 20min |
| Filter: | Astrodon LRGB |
| Mount: | ASA DDM85 equatorial mount with direct drives |
| Software: | Siril 1.4, Photoshop CC |
| Remarks: |
© Photos by Peter Cerveny
© Object description/intro text fully or partially by Wikipedia,
which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License