Cancer is one of the zodiac constellations and is located in the Northern celestial hemisphere. It is a medium-sized constellation, ranking 31st out of the 88 constellations by area. It is the dimmest zodiac constellation, being completely invisible to the naked eye in cities.
To locate Cancer, it would be much easier to locate Pollux and Castor on Gemini, drawing a line directly towards Regulus in Leo. Cancer would be located between the two constellations. Due its faintness, this may be a difficult task.
This is a rough drawing of Cancer, with its neighbouring constellations.
X Cancri is a variable star with an extremely red hue. It lies close to the ecliptic and is subject to lunar occultations. The ecliptic is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From our perspective, the Sun moves around the celestial sphere and traces out a path against the backdrop of stars. Lunar occultations hence refer to the occasions where the Moon passes infront of a star during its orbital motion around Earth. Beehive Cluster, known as Praesepe, is an open cluster close to Earth located in Cancer. It experiences mass segregation - where bright and massive stars are concentrated in its core while dimmer stars populate its halo. Holding over 1000 stars, it contains red giants and white dwarfs, both of which are later stages in the stellar evolution.
Up next is Canes Venatici.