Starwatch: Beehive's buried treasure for the naked eye

With a dark sky and some patience you should be able to see an open star cluster

This week is all about tracking down a faint, open star cluster with the unaided eye. You will need a dark sky and some patience, but once successful you will feel like you have found some buried treasure up there.

The star cluster in question is known as the Beehive cluster, or Praesepe, the Latin word for manger. It sits in the faint constellation of Cancer, the crab. Praesepe is an open star cluster, a former stellar nursery whose stars are gradually moving apart to merge with the background of stars in the galaxy.