About Beehive Cluster (M44)

Beehive Cluster stands out as a well-known observing object and shows up as a faint patch of light. It is relatively bright.

Current visibility

Right now it is at about 59° altitude and reaches 70° around 08:31 PM.

It stays above 30° for roughly 8 hours.

Observing conditions matter, contrast improves away from light pollution.

Observing tips

It can be observed without much difficulty.

What to expect

In small telescopes it remains mostly unresolved.

It appears more compact than typical clusters.

Type

Open Cluster

Constellation

Cancer

Distance

577 ly

Size

70.0'

Season

Winter

Difficulty

Easy

Magnitude

3.7