Explanation:
At opposition
in late January, Mars shone very brightly in planet
Earth's night sky, among the stars of the constellation
Cancer
the Crab.
Since then the
Red Planet
has been fading, but still lingers in Cancer
during April and May.
In mid-April, Mars wandered remarkably close to Cancer's famous
star cluster M44, the Beehive Cluster.
M44 is also known by an older name, Praesepe,
Latin for cradle or manger.
Captured in this 60 second time exposure made on April 14,
a yellow-tinged Mars and M44 are near the center
of the field, seemingly just beyond the reach of a pine tree.
Of course, M44's stars are about 600 light-years away,
while Mars was more like 600
light-seconds
from Earth.
The digital photograph
was made with a camera mounted on
a telescope tracking the stars through dark skies above
a camp ground in Virginia, USA.
During the exposure, passing car lights briefly illuminated the tree
branches.
