Friday, October 09, 2026
Mars Crosses the Beehive cluster 10-13 October, 2026
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| North-Eastern horizon on the morning of Monday, October 12 as seen from
Adelaide
at 5:11 ACDST (90 minutes before sunrise, click to embiggen). Mars is in the heart of the Beehive cluster (M44). Mars forms a line with Jupiter and the bright star Regulus. The insets shows the binocular view of Mars in the Beehive cluster and telescopic view of Jupiter at this time. | Black and white binocular chart suitable for printing showing the movement of Mars with respect to the Beehive from 10 to 13 October. The large circle represents the field of view of 10x50 binoculars. The small circle the field of view of a 30 mm telescope eyepiece. use the horizon chart to the left for orientation, Jupiter and Pollux will help guide you, although Mars is obvious. Click to embiggen and print and use with a red-light torch (or a standard torch with red cellophane over it) so as to not disturb your night vision.. |
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| Binocular view of Mars in the heart of the Beehive (M44) om 11 October at 5:12 ACDST as simulated in stellarium. The guide stars are as indicated in the Black and white binocular chart (click to embiggen). | Binocular view of Mars in the heart of the Beehive (M44) om 12 October at 5:12 ACDST as simulated in stellarium. The guide stars are as indicated in the Black and white binocular chart (click to embiggen). |
From Saturday 10 October to Tuesday 13 June, Mars crosses the Beehive cluster (M44) in the morning. Under dark skies this delightful open cluster looks like a faint nebulous patch, but binoculars or a telescope will reveal it's wonderful starry mass.
While in principle seeing Mars in the heart of the beehive is possible with the unaided eye, this is far better seen with binoculars or a small telescope, On the 10th Mars on on the outskirts of the cluster, and on the 11th and 12th Mars is in the heart of the cluster. Then on the 13th it is on the outskirts again. The cluster fits neatly into medium power telescope eyepiece fields on the on the 11th and 12th, although it is close to the horizon (16° at astronomical twilight). On the days leading up to the crossing and a couple of days after, Mars and the cluster are in the same binocular field.
The view is best at Astronomical twilight, and hour and a half before sunrise, much later than this and the Beehive gets washed out by the encroaching twilight. Mars is not so bright that it will drown out the clusters dimmer stats, so this will be a nice opportunity for some astrophotography.
Labels: Beehive cluster, binocular, Mars, telescope
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