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Object Type: Open cluster
Constellation: Cancer
Magnitude: 3.7
Size: 95'

M44, commonly known as the Beehive Cluster or Praesepe (Latin for "manger") is easily visible to the naked eye. Its age is estimated at 730 million years, and it is located about 577 light-years from our solar system.

Equipment: Vixen 102-ED/TS Optics field flattener/STL-11000M/Astrodon LRGB filters/Paramount ME
F-ratio: f/6.5
Exposures: LRGB: L 10 x 3 minutes: R 10 x 3 minutes: G 10 x 3 minutes: B 10 x 3 minutes: RGB binned 2x2
Date: March 13, 2010
Location: Landers, California, USA
Technical Notes: Individual exposures were dithered using CCDAutoPilot2 and then sigma combined. The RGB image was created in Registar 1.0. Reduce Noise was applied to the RGB image and the dim portions of the luminance image. Gaussian Blur was applied to the RGB image.