Our Constellation report is an easy way for people to become familiar with the nighttime sky. We’ll discuss myths associated with the various constellations as well as describing the numerous deep sky objects residing in the area. No equipment is required to view the constellations, though a star chart can be quite helpful. This ease of observing makes constellations a natural place to begin your journey to the stars.

This weekend we move on to the constellation Cancer the Crab. This constellation has few bright stars. It's brightest are grouped in a centrally located quadrangle which encompasses it's brightest star cluster.

The focus of our efforts this week will be the deep sky objects of Cancer. Cancer can be found due east of the constellations Gemini which we visited last weekend. Cancer has only a few bright stars grouped around it's brightest deep sky object, Open Star Cluster M44. The busy area will be the first thing you notice while searching for The Crab.

Open Star Cluster M44 as imaged by Anthony Arrigo of Utah Skies

Ok, our fist object is a big, beautiful naked-eye object, Open Star Cluster M44(mag3.1). With a diameter of 1.6°, this object is actually too big to fit into some telescopes and is probably best viewed with astronomical binoculars. Also known as Praesepe (Latin for "manger"), or "The Beehive Cluster", M44 has been viewed throughout human history. Even Galileo pointed his telescope at it and reported: "The nebula called Praesepe, which is not one star only, but a mass of more than 40 small stars." . M44 also has the distinction of being the only Messier Object which is brighter than the stars of the constellation it's in. This... and the fact that Jupiter is only a few degrees to the east should make M44 and easy find for you. Consider this the low hanging fruit ;)

This beautiful cluster has about 350 visible stars… ranging from about mag6 to mag14. What a beautiful sight… Stars seem to swarm in a low-power eyepiece. The Beehive Cluster is located about 577 light years distant, and its age is estimated at about 400 million years.

This beautiful shot of M44 was taken by Utah Skies own Anthony Arrigo on April 4th, 2002 using an Olympus OM-1 shooting at prime focus through a 120mm f/5 refractor. This was a 2 minute exposure on Fuji 800.

Open Star Cluster M67 as imaged by The Highland Road Park Observatory

Next we'll hit a neighboring Open Star Cluster M67(mag6.9). You'll immediately notice the difference between these two clusters. M44 is young and close, with it's several bright stars and M67 is considerably older and more distant, with its many faint members. It has an almost delicate appearance after viewing it's neighbor to the north. M67 is one of the oldest known open clusters, and by far the oldest of Messier's open clusters, being aged at 3.2 billion years in the Star Catalog 2000. It is located about 2500 light years distant which translates it's 1/4° diameter into about 12 light years.

M67 has about 500 member stars ranging in brightness from mag10-mag16. Your views will improve steadily with increased aperture. You'll also want to bump the magnification once you've found it. Whereas M44 will go edge to edge in many telescopes, M67 is much smaller. Push the magnification until the cluster fills about 1/2 to 2/3 of the eyepiece... then dive on in.

Here's a beautiful shot of both M44 and M67 together. In the middle you can see a chance meteor.

This awesome shot was taken by Bob Christmas. Checkout his site, he's got some really nice work.

Spiral Galaxy NGC2775 as imaged by Chris and Dawn Schur

Let's wrap things up with this weeks Utah Skies Challenge Object, Spiral Galaxy NGC2775(mag10.3). This galaxy is definitely beyond the reach of binoculars. It's visible in a 4", but you'll probably need an 8-10" to get a half-way decent view. At this aperture, you can expect to see a large object with a non-stellar core. You'll also begin to note a distinctly hazy outer region.

You may be wondering... if this is a spiral galaxy, where are the spiral arms? Good question. Astronomers believe that this is an old galaxy which no longer makes new stars. Since new star formation typically occurs in the arms, the arms are simply very faint. This is a characteristic of elliptical galaxies.

This awesome shot was taken by Chris and Dawn Schur down in Payson, Arizona using a 12.5" f/5 Home made Newtonian mounted on an Astrophysics 1200 QMD mount with and an SBIG ST7E CCD camera with Enhanced Cooling. If you haven't been to their site yet, check it out! It's loaded with awesome astronomical images!

Good Luck!