The Beehive open star cluster (M44, NGC 2632, also known as Praesepe; mag 3.1) will be well placed in the evening sky in coming weeks. On 31 January it will reach its highest point in the sky at around midnight local time, and on subsequent evenings it will culminate four minutes earlier each day.
From Columbus , it is visible in the evening sky, becoming accessible around 18:51 (EST), 16° above your eastern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then reach its highest point in the sky at 00:32, 69° above your southern horizon. It will continue to be observable until around 06:12, when it sinks below 16° above your western horizon.
At a declination of 19°40'N, it is easiest to see from the northern hemisphere; it can be seen at latitudes between 89°N and 50°S.
At magnitude 3.1, M44 is tricky to make out with the naked eye except from a dark site, but is visible through a pair of binoculars or small telescope.
The position of M44 is as follows:
| Object | Right Ascension | Declination | Constellation | Magnitude | Angular Size |
| M44 | 08h40m20s | 19°40'N | Cancer | 3.1 | 108'36" |
The coordinates above are given in J2000.0.
The sky on 31 Jan 2024
| The sky on 31 January 2024 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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62% 20 days old |
All times shown in EST.
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Source
The circumstances of this event were computed using the DE430 planetary ephemeris published by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).
This event was automatically generated by searching the ephemeris for planetary alignments which are of interest to amateur astronomers, and the text above was generated based on an estimate of your location.
Image credit
© Digitised Sky Survey (DSS); Second Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-II)