Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Looking South-Southeast One-Two Hours Before Dawn
From yesterdays chart, youll see that the now first quarter moon
has moved eastward in the sky, as it always does, leaving Saturn
and the constellation Cancer the Crab behind. Cancer is the
faintest of the 12 constellations of the zodiac. You won't see much
of this constellation with the eye alone, but some people describe
Cancer's shape as resembling the spokes of a wheel. If you wait a
day or two (when the moon is out of this area of the sky), you can
aim your binoculars in this direction to see one of the sky's best
hidden treasures. It's a cluster of stars called M44, otherwise
known as Praesepe or the Beehive Cluster, and it's right in the
middle of the Crab. As usual, the darker your night sky, and the
farther you are from city lights, the better the view.
