Praesepe Cluster
Praesepe is called after the open cluster of the same name
(also known as NGC 2632 and M 44). The Praesepe cluster was first catalogued
in the 1st century A.D. by Ptolemy, making it the second earliest
catalogued non-stellar object. It is also refered to as the "beehive",
to reflect the round fuzzy appearence of the cluster,
similar to that of a swarm of bees, when viewed with the naked eye.
You might be interested in downloading a 5-megabyte
WAV file, with
the first 115 seconds of Praesepe, a choral work written in 1952 Villa Lobos
and based on a medieval poem.
info@praesepe.com