M44 Beehive Cluster

On December 6th, 2008 between 11:00pm-11:45pm CST I made the following observations: The evening was clear and cold. Winds at 5-10 mph with a temperature of approx. 10 degrees. With a waxing gibbous moon at 68% full and snow on the ground, I viewed M44 the Beehive Open Cluster in Cancer. There is nothing exciting about this 4.0 magnitude object - about 500 light years away, it is comprised of approx. 40 stars. It looks more like a swarm of bees than a beehive.

I also viewed M41, another open cluster in Canis Major, about 2400 light years away. Used 12 Canis Majoris as a reference star. Also viewed the M67 Open Cluster in Cancer, a 7.5 magnitude object. M79 was a Globular Cluster in Lepus. Difficult to find at 8.5 magnitude, this object is about 54,000 light years away. I used HIP25273 and TYC6475-187-1 as reference stars. M79 can be best described as a faint fuzzy sphere using a 10mm eye piece. Even though sometimes dull to the eye, Globular Clusters tend to be more exciting to view than the more common Open Clusters.

I also viewed NGC 2266 in Gemini, an open cluster that was difficult to discern. I would have cataloged more NGC objects, but it was too cold.