Open cluster
Beehive Cluster (M44)
In Cancer (Cnc) • Magnitude 3.7 • 1.6 degrees
Open the free AstroPlanner with Beehive Cluster pre-selected, scored against your telescope, location, and the live cloud forecast.
One of the nearest open clusters at 577 light-years, large and rich enough to be a spectacular sight through binoculars. In 2012 astronomers discovered two exoplanets orbiting Sun-like stars within M44, making it the first open cluster confirmed to host planetary systems.
Beehive Cluster at a glance
| Catalog IDs | M44, N 2632 |
| Type | Open cluster |
| Constellation | Cancer (Cnc) |
| Right ascension | 08h 40m 05s |
| Declination | +19° 58' 48" |
| Apparent magnitude | 3.70 |
| Angular size | 95.0 × 95.0 arcmin |
| Max altitude at 45°N | 65° |
| Best imaging months | Oct, Nov, Dec |
How to image Beehive Cluster
Beehive Cluster sits in the constellation Cancer at right ascension 08h 40m 05s and declination +19° 58' 48". To frame and integrate it well, AstroPlanner will compute the optimal moonless window for tonight from your location, the field-of-view fit against your sensor and focal length, the suggested total integration time given your aperture and sky Bortle class, and a cloud-aware schedule that drops it from the plan if your nearest cloud forecast spike overlaps the best altitude window.