Mars Signposts the Beehive Cluster This Week — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- Mars sails through the Beehive star cluster (Messier 44) in Cancer this week, acting as a signpost to help observers find a target that is otherwise hard to locate.
- The Beehive cluster, catalogued as Messier 44, has been known since antiquity under the Latin name Praesepe, meaning "manger" or "crib."
- Cancer contains no bright stars to guide the eye, which is why the Beehive — despite being one of the brightest star clusters in the night sky — can be surprisingly difficult to spot.
- Observers looking east from London at 0200 BST on 13 October will see Mars as a moderately bright, distinctly red object, with the Beehive appearing as a faint, misty patch nearby.
- Light pollution significantly hampers visibility, and the source notes eyes need about 20 minutes to adjust to darkness.
- Binoculars transform the indistinct haze into a visible scattering of individual stars, revealing the cluster's true structure.
Why it matters: For stargazers, the practical value is concrete: a specific viewing window — 0200 BST on 13 October, looking east — when Mars's red glow serves as the only reliable guide to a cluster that Cancer's dim constellation otherwise hides. With dark skies and binoculars, the payoff is the cluster resolving from a misty patch into individual stars.
Ask SkimNews
