Seen from Earth in the constellation Cancer, the Beehive cluster, also known as Praesepe, has been observed since ancient times. It is one of the closest star clusters to Earth, and can be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy spot in the breast of Cancer. The numerous bright blue and orange stars give this cluster a striking appearance through the telescope.

This image was composed from 96 ten second exposures at 800 mm focal length and f/4, made with a ZWO ASI071MC Pro camera. The air temperature was in the upper 40's to lower 50's Fahrenheit during the imaging session, and the camera sensor was cooled to 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Thirty flat frames and 100 bias frames were used - no dark frames were needed due to the very low dark current of the ASI071MC Pro camera.


There are hundreds of distant galaxies visible in this image as well. If you examine the image at full size, you can spot many of them, though others are indistinguishable from stars at this image scale.