The Planet & The Bees

For the past few months, the planet Mars has been shining its orange-ish glow furiously in the winter sky, for a time even out-shining the brightest stars. As the months have rolled along, it has begun to dim a bit as the distance between Earth and Mars grows. That doesn't mean that Mars is simply going to fade away; it will still be plenty bright, and it has a rendezvous with a wonderful deep sky object this month. That deep sky object is M44, the Praesepe or Beehive Cluster.

When I say rendezvous, I mean appearing to be very close to. In actuality, there are a few hundred light years between Mars and the Beehive; M44 is 577 light years away.

Mars and M44 on the 13th & 14th of April

The Beehive is an open cluster, a little over a thousand stars gravitationally bound together and sharing a common origin. Most of the stars that compose the cluster are small red dwarfs, too faint to be seen with most telescopes. The ones we do see are much larger and brighter, and, in fact, there are a few giants within the cluster itself. Like most open clusters, the largest members seem to be huddled within the interior, with the fainter stars spreading out from there. It's this arrangement that gives the Beehive Cluster its name, for it really does resemble a swarm of bees buzzing around a hive.

Normally, in urban and suburban skies, the Beehive is a little difficult to locate, due to light pollution. If you do live under such conditions, your best tool for seeing them is either a pair of binoculars or a small telescope. Once it is located, though, the brighter stars immediately show up, and a few more also pop into view with patience. The problem is that the Beehive lies within the somewhat faint constellation of Cancer, so locating it might be difficult. On the nights between the 13th and 16^th of April, 2010, Mars will make finding the cluster much easier, for on its closest approach (16^th April) it will lie 1° 10' north of the cluster. That's approximately two lunar (Moon) diameters. Just find Mars, and head a little way south.

Mars & M44 on the 16th of April

If you live in a more rural region, though, you'll see Mars close to a smudge of light, the condensed light of hundreds of stars that sent their photons in our direction almost fifty years before Columbus set out on his voyage of discovery. Whether you live under urban, suburban or rural skies, be sure to enjoy your voyage of discovery as you get a look at this little gathering of the Planet and the Bees.

When Worlds Appear To Get Real Close

Spend a few minutes outside this evening and take a look to the west just after sunset. You'll see two stars up there in the sky glow. They're not stars, they're planets; Venus and Mercury. And Mercury will not be around for long.
Mercury takes 88 days to go around the Sun; that's about three months. When it reaches its highest point in the western sky (known as its maximum eastern elongation, basically its furthest point east), it doesn't stay long, and begins its dive right back into the sunset. Meantime, Venus takes a leisurely 225 days to orbit the Sun (though, compared to our 365 days, leisurely might not be an appropriate term, but compared to Mercury...). This trip round, Mercury didn't climb quite as high as Venus (it actually reached its peak on the 8th of April).
It's their proximity to one another in the evening sky that probably piqued the interests of astrologers of old; surely, they must have something going on (goddess of beauty seeing the heavenly messenger? Isn't that like having a fling with your postman?). The truth is that they are tens of millions of miles apart, with Venus still climbing to its maximum eastern elongation, which is months away (more next week).


In early July, Mercury will repeat a climb into the west, a good time for it to be caught for sure. If you're a morning person (I am, with the right amount of coffee), you can catch Mercury in early to mid May doing the same thing in the morning sky. Meantime, enjoy catching these two hotties (well, because they are pretty darned hot) as they hang out together in the sunset.

(This post written on a laptop running Xubuntu. Star chart edited from KStars, Solar System chart co-opted from "The Solar System Live" at Fourmilab.ch)