It’ll be hard to miss the dazzling planet Jupiter on these May, 2015 evenings. Moreover, this month, Jupiter is your ticket to finding the Beehive star cluster (Messier 44), the crown jewel in the constellation Cancer the Crab. As good fortune would have it, Jupiter shines rather close to the Beehive all month long.
The Beehive cluster, although faintly visible to the unaided eye as a smudgy haze of light in a dark country sky, is best viewed through binoculars or a low powered telescope. Depending on the binoculars’ field of view (FOV), you may – or may not – see Jupiter and the Beehive in the same binocular field together.
Fortunately, the Beehive can still be seen through binoculars in a sky that’s somewhat beset by light pollution. Best yet, you can use the brightest and second-brightest star-like objects in the May evening sky – the planets Venus and Jupiter, respectively – to locate the Beehive. It’s not likely that you’ll mistake one planet for the other as evening falls. Venus beams in the western sky, whereas Jupiter shines much higher up, above Venus. (See sky chart below).
Fortunately, the Beehive star cluster is easy to locate in 2015, between the brilliant planets Jupiter and Venus. The planets are always found on or near the ecliptic – Earth’s orbital plane projected onto the constellations of the Zodiac.
To know on which side of Jupiter to seek out the Beehive cluster, refer to the planet Venus below Jupiter – or the bright star Regulus above Jupiter. An imaginary line from Regulus through Jupiter points out the Beehive star cluster. Or, if it’s easier for you, just remember that, from Jupiter, the Beehive is in the direction of Venus, the brightest star-like point of light in all the heavens.
Jupiter and the Beehive cluster reside on nearly the same line of sight, but they’re actually nowhere close together in space. Jupiter is nearly 5.4 astronomical units (one astronomical unit = Earth/sun distance) from Earth whereas the Beehive star cluster is thought to be some 577 light-years distant. Given that there are 63,240 astronomical units in one light-year, that means the Beehive is way out there, at about 6.75 million times Jupiter’s distance from Earth.
Bottom line: This evening, or on any clear evening in May 2015, use the dazzling planet Jupiter to locate the Beehive cluster, the crown jewel of the constellation Cancer the Crab.
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It’ll be hard to miss the dazzling planet Jupiter on these May, 2015 evenings. Moreover, this month, Jupiter is your ticket to finding the Beehive star cluster (Messier 44), the crown jewel in the constellation Cancer the Crab. As good fortune would have it, Jupiter shines rather close to the Beehive all month long.
The Beehive cluster, although faintly visible to the unaided eye as a smudgy haze of light in a dark country sky, is best viewed through binoculars or a low powered telescope. Depending on the binoculars’ field of view (FOV), you may – or may not – see Jupiter and the Beehive in the same binocular field together.
Fortunately, the Beehive can still be seen through binoculars in a sky that’s somewhat beset by light pollution. Best yet, you can use the brightest and second-brightest star-like objects in the May evening sky – the planets Venus and Jupiter, respectively – to locate the Beehive. It’s not likely that you’ll mistake one planet for the other as evening falls. Venus beams in the western sky, whereas Jupiter shines much higher up, above Venus. (See sky chart below).
Fortunately, the Beehive star cluster is easy to locate in 2015, between the brilliant planets Jupiter and Venus. The planets are always found on or near the ecliptic – Earth’s orbital plane projected onto the constellations of the Zodiac.
To know on which side of Jupiter to seek out the Beehive cluster, refer to the planet Venus below Jupiter – or the bright star Regulus above Jupiter. An imaginary line from Regulus through Jupiter points out the Beehive star cluster. Or, if it’s easier for you, just remember that, from Jupiter, the Beehive is in the direction of Venus, the brightest star-like point of light in all the heavens.
Jupiter and the Beehive cluster reside on nearly the same line of sight, but they’re actually nowhere close together in space. Jupiter is nearly 5.4 astronomical units (one astronomical unit = Earth/sun distance) from Earth whereas the Beehive star cluster is thought to be some 577 light-years distant. Given that there are 63,240 astronomical units in one light-year, that means the Beehive is way out there, at about 6.75 million times Jupiter’s distance from Earth.
Bottom line: This evening, or on any clear evening in May 2015, use the dazzling planet Jupiter to locate the Beehive cluster, the crown jewel of the constellation Cancer the Crab.
Enjoying EarthSky so far? Sign up for our free daily newsletter today!
Donate: Your support means the world to us
from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1AQDTwa
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