- Asellus Australis (stars.astro.illinois.edu)
ASELLUS AUSTRALIS (Delta Cancri). After the Pleiades and Hyades of Taurus, the Beehive cluster (Messier 44) of Cancer takes its place as one of the more prominent open clusters of the northern sky. The cluster is equally well-known as the Praesepe, or “manger,” and as such it is flanked by a pair of asses, donkeys, or “Aselli.” The northern one, Gamma Cancri, to the northeast of the Beehive, then takes on the name Asellus Borealis, the brighter fourth magnitude (3.94) southeastern one of the unrelated pair the name Asellus Australis.
