After last week's dramatic close encounter in the evening twilight, Venus and Mars are now drifting apart. But as soon as the sky darkens Jupiter can be seen high on the east, dominating the sky.
If you look at Jupiter at the moment you'll notice a fuzzy - something to its right, like a misty cloud several times the size of the Moon. This is actually one of the most famous star clusters in the sky - M44, or Praesepe. Through a pair of binoculars you'll see it as a clump of several dozen stars, and a small telescope shows many more.
M44 is nicknamed the Beehive Cluster, as early astronomers thought it looked like a swarm of bees. But we're not at risk from any stings; the cluster is almost 600 light years away. That's very close to us in cosmic terms, but still a long way away. In fact, when you look at the Beehive, the light entering your eyes set off from its stars in the year 1438.
Stuart Atkinson
Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal.
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