Hive Cluster
Between Gemini and Leo lies the constellation of Cancer. It is faint, with no stars brighter than 3.5 magnitude, but at its center lies a classic object for binoculars, the star cluster M44. This cluster was known in ancient times as Praesepe, The Manger, but now it is called the Hive. The cluster is surrounded by two stars known as Donkeys, visualized as nursing near the Manger. To the north is Gamma (Y) Cancri, magnitude 4.7, called Asellus Borealis, the Northern Donkey, while Delta (8) Cancri, magnitude 3.9, is the Southern Donkey, Asellus Australis. M44 is visible to the naked eye on clear nights as a foggy spot, and was familiar to the ancient Greeks who observed it to predict the weather. If the Manger was invisible on another clear night, it was considered a sign of a coming storm. M44 covers 112° of the sky, three times the apparent size of the full Moon—too large to fit into the field of view of a conventional telescope, but perfect for binoculars. The Beehive cluster is larger even than the Pleiades in Taurus, although its stars are not as bright. The brightest member of the Hive is Epsilon (ε) Cancer, a white star of magnitude 6.3. In total, M44 contains about twenty brighter stars