Astrology

Mars crosses the Beehive star cluster in Cancer through October 12

Mars is passing through the Beehive Cluster, a group of stars in Cancer the Crab also called Messier 44, with the planet appearing almost in the middle of the cluster on the mornings of October 11 and 12, Astronomy.com reports.

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Where to find Mars before dawn#

Mars rises around 1 a.m. local daylight time and stands about 30 degrees high in the east by 4 a.m., shining at magnitude 1.1, according to Astronomy.com. Space.com reports the planet entered the cluster from its western edge on October 10 and will reach the eastern edge by October 12.

BBC Sky at Night Magazine says Mars passes in front of the Beehive between October 9 and 12, appearing redder and dimmer than Jupiter, which sits lower in the same eastern sky before sunrise. Mars was about 152 million miles from Earth as of early October, Space.com reports, and will keep brightening toward magnitude 0.9 by month's end.

A telescope or binoculars brings the view into focus, turning the cluster's hazy glow into a scattering of individual stars around the planet, BBC Sky at Night Magazine notes. AOL.ca adds that from a dark observing site the Beehive appears as a faint, misty patch right next to Mars, though light pollution can hide it entirely.

A cluster known since antiquity#

The Beehive Cluster has carried the Latin name Praesepe, meaning manger or crib, since ancient times because of its hazy appearance to the naked eye, Astronomy.com and AOL.ca both report. Under dark skies the cluster's stars shine collectively around magnitude 3.7 and span nearly 100 arcminutes of sky, Astronomy.com reports.

The cluster holds roughly 1,000 stars and is one of the nearest open clusters to Earth, according to Wikipedia, which notes that the astronomer Ptolemy once characterized it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer" and that Galileo was among the first to study it with a telescope.

Cancer itself has no star brighter than 4th magnitude, which is why the constellation is hard to pick out without Mars or the cluster as a guide this week, Space.com reports.

The rest of October's sky#

Saturn reached opposition on October 4, placing it opposite the sun and visible for nearly the entire night, rising at sunset and setting around sunrise, Space.com reports. Mars will leave Cancer for Leo on October 31 and pass just north of Jupiter on November 16, according to Space.com.

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