ABSTRACT
This chapter shows a map of the whole of Cancer and Canis Minor and most of Sextans, together with part of Hydra and small portions of Leo and Gemini. Cancer, the Crab, is one of the dimmest Zodiacal constellations; in outline it is not unlike a very faint and ghostly Orion. The brightest star, Beta is decidedly orange. Zeta Cancri, below and to the left of Mars in the photograph, is an interesting multiple system. The main component is a very close binary; the separation is never greater than 1.2 seconds of arc. Praesepe is a fairly old cluster, in age closer to the Hyades than to the Pleiades, but the second Messier object in Cancer, M67, has the distinction of being one of the very oldest known galactic clusters. In general, such clusters are disrupted by passing field stars, and lose their identity; but M67 lies almost 1,500 light-years above the crowded region of the galactic plane.
