October 15, 2025: Before sunrise, the crescent moon joins the Beehive star cluster in Cancer. Jupiter shines nearby, while the moon and cluster fit into the same binocular field of view.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:03 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:09 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
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Moon and Beehive Star Cluster
This morning, the crescent moon appears with the Beehive star cluster in the same binocular field.
Step outside about an hour before sunrise. The crescent moon, 32% illuminated, is over halfway up in the east-southeast. The bright starlike body to the upper right is Jupiter.
Jupiter rambles eastward in front of Gemini, to the lower right of the Twins, Castor and Pollux.
The moon is more than halfway from Pollux to Leo’s Regulus, over 35° above the horizon.
The seemingly empty space between Pollux and Regulus is the constellation Cancer. On moonless nights from rural locations, a faint patch of stars, spanning a region wider than the moon, is visible in the middle of the constellation. This is the Beehive star cluster. From suburban areas, point a binocular midway from Pollux to Regulus. The cluster will be somewhere in the field of view.
Binocular View
This morning, the moon and the star cluster tightly fit into the same binocular field. Once you see the cluster, center it in the field. While not as prominent as the Pleiades, the Beehive contains a few hundred stars, though perhaps as many as one thousand. It has more yellow and orange stars compared to the Seven Sisters, and according to stellar models, thought to be older. Blue stars are thought to be younger than yellow and orange stars.
The Beehive is also known as Praesepe, the Manger. Two stars, Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis, represent donkeys that stand nearby, reinforcing the name.
Each month until at least March 2026, the moon’s phase is too bright to easily view the cluster with it. Through a binocular, a bright moon creates a temporary afterimage, similar to a camera flash. Be sure to see this binocular view.
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