M44

M44 (the beehive cluster) has a most unusual ancient Chinese name Ji Shi Qi, 'vapor(Qi) of piled-up(Ji) corpses(Shi)', apparently referring to the nebulous quality of the cluster before telescope days.

3D image

A pair of 3D images showing Jupiter 'floating' on the background of M44. The left image was taken on 2003/3/26, the right one a month later on 2003/4/26. Both with Nikon coolpix 995, 20 seconds, 4 raw images stacked.

Jupiter near M44, 2003/3/26

2003/3/26 21:30 EST. Jupiter near the beehive cluster M44. Nikon coolpix 995 camera. Stack of 4 photos of 20 seconds each, F2.6, f8.2, ISO 800, noise reduction on. No telescope or tracking was used. Light pollution resulted in the pink background. From Green Tree, Pittsburgh.