{"id":65080,"date":"2024-11-01T11:21:07","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T11:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/78cbb788-a946-4f6a-8792-52bd7b9942fd"},"modified":"2024-11-01T12:39:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T12:39:36","slug":"mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mars retrograde in 2024 and 2025 sees the Red Planet meet the Beehive Cluster in Cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Pete Lawrence\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 01 November 2024 at 11:21 AM<\/p>

\n\n

The planet Mars is no stranger to buzzing the Beehive Cluster, M44, but the visits are infrequent enough to make them special to look out for.<\/p>

Mars approaches the Beehive Cluster<\/a> in early December 2024, with a minimum separation of 2\u00b0 on 6 December.<\/p>

Mars passing across the Beehive Cluster in October 2011, imaged through a f\/3.3 reflector. Credit: Pete Lawrence <\/figcaption> <\/figure>

On this date, the planet appears to change direction from moving east to moving west.<\/p>

The reversing direction occurs at what\u2019s known as a stationary point, the apparent movement changing from prograde (eastward) to retrograde<\/a> (westward).\u00a0<\/p>

This Mars retrograde<\/a> encounter doesn\u2019t see Mars cross the face of the Beehive, but make its closest approach northwest of the cluster\u2019s centre.<\/p>

\"Chart — Chart showing Mars retrograde in 2024 and its meeting with the Beehive Cluster. Click to expand. Credit: Pete Lawrence <\/figcaption> <\/figure>
The start of Mars\u2019s retrograde motion is the first bend in what\u2019s known as a retrograde loop.<\/p>
The second bend occurs in Gemini<\/a> on 24 February 2025, when the planet reverses direction and heads east again.<\/p>
This brings it on an apparent collision course with the Beehive, passing across the cluster in early May 2025.<\/p>
Although there\u2019s no real scientific significance to the encounter, it\u2019s an interesting visual target which is also relatively easy to photograph.<\/p>
A good clear run at the end of November into early December will allow images taken on sequential nights to be combined to show Mars passing its stationary point near this iconic cluster.<\/p>
***If you observe or photograph Mars in retrograde and its meeting with the Beehive Cluster, let us know by emailing*** ***contactus@skyatnightmagazine.com<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n***
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 01 November 2024 at 11:21 AM The planet Mars is no stranger to buzzing the Beehive Cluster, M44, but the visits are infrequent enough to make them special to look out for. Mars approaches the Beehive Cluster in early December 2024, with a minimum separation of 2\u00b0 on 6 December. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":65081,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/77\/2024\/11\/mars-retrograde-in-2024-and-2025-sees-the-red-planet-meet-the-beehive-cluster-in-cancer.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Pete Lawrence Published: Friday, 01 November 2024 at 11:21 AM The planet Mars is no stranger to buzzing the Beehive Cluster, M44, but the visits are infrequent enough to make them special to look out for. Mars approaches the Beehive Cluster in early December 2024, with a minimum separation of 2\u00b0 on 6 December.…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/65080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}