Cancer, the springtime evening Zodiac constellation east of Gemini and west of Leo...and representing a crab...is perhaps the faintest of the Twelve. As a matter of fact, because of the dimness of even its brightest stars, the best way to locate Cancer is to find the gap in the sky between its Zodiac neighbors and going straight north from the more visible head of Hydra. I guess in a completely dark sky away from city lights you can make it out, but I have never seen for myself the constellation other than on star maps. It does feature two deep-space Messier objects. M44 "Praesepe" or the Beehive, is an open star cluster relatively close to us at 590 light years, located in the constellation's center. M67, in the south of Cancer, is another open cluster. I think I'll make a promise to myself and one clear night in the next week or so pull out my binoculars and check it out...lugging that big old telescope out from the back is too much trouble and, besides, I never could figure out how to pinpoint stars with it. Hey, maybe that can be my next project after I see Cancer with the field glasses...
Next month I'll try to dish up another constellation to discuss...
No comments:
Post a Comment