Editing Beehive Cluster (section)

== History ==
In 1609, [[Galileo]] first telescopically observed the Beehive and was able to resolve it into 40 stars.  [[Charles Messier]] added it to [[Messier object|his famous catalog]] in 1769 after precisely measuring its position in the sky. Along with the [[Orion Nebula]] and the [[Pleiades]] cluster, Messier's inclusion of the Beehive has been noted as curious, as most of Messier's objects were much fainter and more easily confused with comets. Another possibility is that Messier simply wanted to have a larger catalog than his scientific rival [[Nicolas Louis de Lacaille|Lacaille]], whose 1755 catalog contained 42 objects, and so he added some well-known bright objects to boost his list.<ref>
{{cite web
 |author=Frommert, Hartmut
 |date=1998
 |url=http://messier.seds.org/m-q&a.html#why_M42-45
 |title=Messier Questions & Answers
 |publisher=[[SEDS]]
 |access-date=2005-03-01
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050209083425/http://www.seds.org/messier/m-q%26a.html#why_M42-45
 |archive-date=9 February 2005
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> [[Wilhelm Schur]], as director of the [[Göttingen Observatory]], drew a map of the cluster in 1894.[[File:Wilhelm Schur, 004.jpg|left|thumb|[[Wilhelm Schur|Wilhelm Schur's]] map of the Beehive Cluster in 1894]]Ancient Greeks and Romans saw this object as a manger from which two donkeys, the adjacent stars [[Gamma Cancri|Asellus Borealis]] and [[Delta Cancri|Asellus Australis]], are eating; these are the donkeys that [[Dionysos]] and [[Silenus]] rode into battle against the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]].<ref>
{{cite web |title=M44 |url=http://messier.seds.org/m/m044.html |publisher=[[SEDS]]|access-date=2005-02-06}}</ref>

[[Hipparchus]] (''c''.130 BC) refers to the cluster as ''Nephelion'' ("Little Cloud") in his star catalog.<ref name="Allen1899"/> [[Claudius Ptolemy]]'s ''[[Almagest]]'' includes the Beehive Cluster as one of seven "nebulae" (four of which are real<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://messier.seds.org/xtra/history/deepskyd.html#ptolemy | title=The Discovery of the Deep Sky Objects}}</ref>), describing it as "The Nebulous Mass in the Breast (of Cancer)".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://messier.seds.org/m/m044.html|title=Messier Object 44|publisher=[[SEDS]]|access-date=2013-09-28}}</ref> [[Aratus]] (''c''.260–270 BC) calls the cluster ''Achlus'' or "Little Mist" in his poem ''Phainomena''.<ref name="Allen1899"/>

[[Johann Bayer]] showed the cluster as a nebulous star on his [[Uranometria]] atlas of 1603, and labeled it Epsilon. The letter is now applied specifically to the brightest star of the cluster [[Epsilon Cancri]], of magnitude 6.29.<ref name=Ridpath>{{cite web |url = http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/cancer.html#praesepe |title = Cancer – the asses and the Manger |website = Star Tales (online edition) |access-date = 2023-11-19}}</ref> Bayer also cited the name ''Melleff'' or ''Meeleph'' for the cluster, from Arabic ''Al Ma'laf'', the Stall;<ref name="Allen1899"/> as ''Meleph'', this name is also now applied specifically to the star Epsilon Cancri.<ref name="IAU-CSN-new"/>

This perceived nebulous object is in the [[Ghost (Chinese constellation)|Ghost]] (Gui Xiu), the 23rd [[Twenty-Eight Mansions|lunar mansion]] of ancient Chinese astrology.  Ancient Chinese skywatchers saw this as a ghost or demon riding in a carriage and likened its appearance to a "cloud of pollen blown from willow catkins". It was also known by the somewhat less romantic name of ''Jishi qi'' (積屍氣, also transliterated ''Tseih She Ke''), the "Exhalation of Piled-up Corpses".<ref name="Allen1899"/> It is also known simply as Jishi (積屍), "cumulative corpses".