March 15, 2026: The Beehive Cluster (M44), also known as Praesepe, is an easy binocular target in Cancer during spring evenings. Use Pollux and Regulus as guides to find this nearby open star cluster.
by Jeffrey L. Hunt
Chicago, Illinois: Sunrise, 7:02 a.m. CDT; Sunset, 6:57 p.m. CDT. Times are calculated by the US Naval Observatory’s MICA computer program. Check local sources for sunrise and sunset times.
Venus as an Evening Star
The Beehive
Cancer’s Beehive star cluster is an easy find in the March sky. The constellation is between Gemini and Leo. Its presence high in the south during the early evening hours occurs during March and April.
Step outside two hours after sunset. Bright Jupiter is high in the southern sky, to the lower right of Castor and Pollux, the Gemini Twins. Then locate blue-white Regulus, Leo’s brightest star, halfway from the southeast horizon to overhead. Cancer is between the Twins and the Lion. To see the Beehive, point your binocular midway from Pollux to Regulus.
Binocular View
From a rural location without outdoor lighting, the Beehive is visible to the unassisted eye, appearing as a cloudy patch of light about twice the moon’s diameter. It is easily viewed through a binocular or a spotting scope. The higher powers of a telescope only reveal parts of the cluster. It is best seen against a dark sky without the moon.
The Beehive’s appearance high in the southern sky during the early evening hours signals that spring is arriving. Slightly above the ecliptic, the Beehive is regularly visited by the moon and planets. The sun blocks any visibility from late spring through late summer.
The cluster is also known as Praesepe, the manger. Two stars to the east of the cluster, known as Asellus Borealis (northern donkey) and Asellus Australis (southern donkey), refer to the agricultural roots of the cluster’s alternate name. To the west, the stars Eta Cancri (η Cnc) and Theta Cancri (θ Cnc) complete an irregular box around the star cluster.
A thin crescent moon near the Beehive is a special sight. When Cancer returns to the eastern morning sky, western-hemisphere sky watchers can see that view on September 8, 2026, and again on October 5, when the moon occults a few of the cluster’s stars.
Views from History
The Beehive is the 44th entry in Charles Messier’s 18th-century list of celestial bodies that were not comets. The Messier Catalog is now a standard list of celestial bodies that today’s sky watchers attempt to complete. On the weekend of a New Moon near the vernal equinox, observers attempt to view all 110 objects in one night in a Messier Marathon, the season when all of them are visible during a single night.
In his Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, Robert Burnham Jr. reported that the stellar bundle was once known as the “Little Cloud,” “Little Mist,” and “Cloudy One.” Its visibility in a clear sky served as a forecast of changing weather. If the sky were clear but the Little Cloud was not visible, stormy weather was thought to be approaching.
The first telescopic view of the cluster was likely by Galileo Galilei in 1610 when he counted nearly 40 stars. Modern observations show hundreds of stars in the cluster. The Beehive is over 500 light-years away and less than 15 light-years in diameter. Stellar studies indicate the cluster’s age is about 400 million years.
Look for the Beehive on moonless nights when it is visible high in the southern sky. Follow it until it disappears into evening twilight in a few months.
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