History and Mythology
This dim constellation is well known. 2,500 years ago, the summer solstice (the day that had the most hours of sunlight) took place when this constellation was the zodiac sign. On the summer solstice, around June 25, the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer. Even though today the sun is at the summer solstice in Gemini, we keep the old zodiac. In Greek mythology Cancer was sent by Zeus' wife Hera (Juno) to distract Heracles (Hercules) while he was fighting Hydra. It nipped Hercules, who then just stepped on it, killing it. Hera did place this constellation in the sky, but she didn't give it any bright stars because it failed. The 4th magnitude stars gamma and delta have a mythology of their own. These stars, Asselus Borealis and Asellus Australis, are the "Northern and Southern Asses" (and you thought astronomy was boring). These are believed to be the donkeys that Dionysus (Bacchus) and Silenus rode into battle against the Titans. The gods won because the loud braying scared the Titans. The star cluster Praesepe was seen as the Greeks to be the Gate of Men. This is the gate that souls would go to Earth to be born. This star cluster also played a part in astonomy. It was through this cloud that Galileo proved that there are more stars than can be seen, which is what Aristotle said. This constellation is just west of Leo.
Stars
alpha-Acubens- Arabic for claws Spectral Type-A3 V Magnitude-4.3 Distance-75 ly
beta-Al Tarf- Arabic for "the end", this represents one of the legs Spectral Type-K4 III Magnitude-3.5 Distance-170 ly
gamma-Asselus Borealis- Greek for the Northern Ass Spectral Type-A1 V Magnitude-4.7 Distance-155 ly
delta-Asselus Australis- Greek for the Southern Ass Spectral Type- K0 III Magnitude-3.9 Distance-155 ly
epsilon-a star in Praesepe because in Bayer's original star chart, all of the Praesepe star cluster was known as epsilon
zeta-double star Spectral Types- G to K (I'm not quite sure) Magnitudes5.5 each Distance-52 ly
iota-double star Spectral Types-G8 II and A3 V Magnitudes-4.0 and 6.6 Distance-425 ly
Star Clusters
M44 is the Praesepe or Beehive cluster. It contains about 75 visible stars, with the brightest being of about 4.5. This cluster is a treat in any telescope lying about 515 ly. M67 is an open cluster of around 65 stars. It is abot 6th magnitude and lies 2,500 ly away.
Nebulae
None of interest
Galaxies
NGC 2275 is the only galaxy brighter than 12th magnitude. It is a spiral and looks like a small fuzzy patch to the naked eye.