Beehive, Mars, and Venus
Twice this year (2025), the beautiful open star cluster Messier 44, also known as “Beehive” or “Praesepe Cluster”, was seemingly visited by a bright planetary passerby as it is close to the ecliptic. For the first time, from the end of April to the first half of May, it was the the red planet Mars. Second time, just these days, from the end of August through the beginning of September, by bright Venus. I tried to capture both of the “visitors” while passing Beehive into this one time-lapse shot.
It was not easy, of course. While Mars was passing the Beehive during my visit to Chile (Cerro Pachón observatory, home of Rubin Telescope), Bolivia, and the last days in Seč, the Czech Republic. Mars was visible by the Beehive cluster every evening into deep night that time. The weather was mostly good. Due to lots of traveling, I was not able to capture every position of Mars on my own, so I asked my friend Pavel Štěpánek, who took images of Mars’ position too. Thus, it makes him co-author of this image.
Beehive, Mars, and Venus – Annotated
While capturing Venus from Ústupky, Seč, Czech Republic, I had to deal with much more unpredictable weather, luckily good during closest appearance to the Beehive. This is why only three positions are in the image. Moreover, Venus, appeared with the Beehive very early morning, just for an hour before the dawn started. So not much time for photography.
For the foreground image and positions of Mars, I used Canon Ra, Tamron 70-200mm@200mm, f2.8, ISO 2000, 30s exposures (spikes of Mars achieved with f4 and longer exposure). Foreground is stacked of 54 single exposures. For Venus, I used Nikon Z6III, ISO 2000, same lens, exposures and f number. Every time, the equipment was set on polar aligned Vixen Polarie U mount.
Full credit: Petr Horálek/Institute of Physics in Opava/AURA/NOIRLab, Pavel Štěpánek.
