Messier 44 - The Beehive Cluster

Messier 44 also known as The Beehive Cluster or Praesepe (Latin for "manger", "cot" or "crib") or by its New General Catalog designation of NGC 2632, is a open cluster in the constellation of Cancer the Crab. Being at a distance of only 600 light-years, it is one of the nearest open clusters to Earth. It contains a larger population of stars than other nearby bright open clusters holding around 1,000 stars.

Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times. Classical astronomer Ptolemy described it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer". It was among the first objects that Galileo studied with his telescope. The diameter of the bright inner cluster core is about 23 light years.

Equipment
OTA: SVBONY SV503 70ED Refractor (f/6).
Reducer: SVBONY 0.8x Reducer (f/4.8).
Filter: SVBONY CLS City Light Suppression Filter
Camera: ZWO ASI183MC Pro Cooled Color Camera (20.1mp)
Mount: Explore Scientific EX02GT with PMC-8
21x30s subs captured in SharpCap 4.1 with Darks & Flats.
Processed with GraXpert, Topaz AI Denoise, and Siril.