The Pleiades in Taurus is one of the most tantalizing targets for stargazers in Fall and Winter. Visible to the naked-
eye, it has caught the attention of people all over the globe, from every culture and for thousands of years. Have
you seen it? If not, it should be at or near the top of your list of celestial
targets to explore.
One look at the Pleiades star cluster through a binocular or small telescope and you'll understand its appeal.... as
one of the closest deep space objects to us, its numerous hot, blue
stars glisten
brilliantly, all far brighter than our sun.
Under ideal conditions, it may even be possible to catch a glimpse of the incredible wisps of nebulosity that seem
to envelope the cluster and reflect the blue light of the stars. Our photographs easily capture this.
The Pleiades is big in our sky -- nearly 2.0° across. For comparison, a full moon is 0.5° across. So, in terms of area,
the Pleiades appears 16 times larger than a full moon!
No wonder our ancestors from all over the globe were intrigued by it. It's mentioned three times in the Bible as well
as in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. The Japanese named it Subaru, which means unity.
Other cultures saw the stars representing orphans, wives, sisters and more.
According to Greek mythology, a beautiful sea nymph named Pleione and a Titan named Atlas (who is often shown
holding up the earth), parented seven daughters: Alcyone, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Celaeno and Asterope.
Do your recognize Maia? Your should.... our month of May is named for her.
By the way, these are all Greek names and are not pronounced the way you would in English. For example,
Alcyone is
pronounced al-sahy-uh-nee and Merope is pronounced mer-uh-pee. Can you figure out
Pleione and
Asterope?
In one story, the hunter, Orion, pursued the mother Pleione and her daughters. To save them, the god Zeus, turned
the women into a flock of doves and placed them in the sky as stars. Somehow, Atlas got up there too. The Greek
word peleiades means
flock of doves.
Because of this story, the Pleiades is often called the Seven Sisters.
How many stars you'll actually see will depend
on your eyesight and how dark your skies are. At Starry Hill, we can see all nine stars named below and more
without optical aid. But with a binocular or telescope, more stars are visible than we can count. There are known to
be
about 3,000 stars in the cluster.
Once you spot the Pleiades cluster, use a binocular or a telescope to find its five brightest members that form a
small dipper:
Atlas (magnitude +3.63), Alcyone (+2.86), Merope (+4.17), Electra (+3.71) and Maia (+3.88). Then try to find the
dimmer members: an arc formed by Asterope (+5.76), Taygeta (+4.30), and Celaeno (+5.46), as well Pleione
(+5.05)
next to Atlas. The dimmer ones may be tougher to see if you have a bright moon in the sky or much light pollution.
We have viewed the Pleiades many times through binoculars and telescopes of all sizes and powers. Here're
some of the pics we've taken at four different sizes from very low power on the left to high power on the right.
Low power allows you to view the entire cluster but high power provides a wealth of star pairs, triangles, arcs and
chains that can take lots of time to explore. Enjoy!
Some science: measurements indicate that the stars in the Pleiades formed together about 100 million
years
ago in a
vast
nebula (space cloud) similar to the famous Orion Nebula. The stars are B-type stars which are hot, luminous and
bluish in color.
The nebula dispersed over time. It was believed that the glowing blue nebula around the brightest stars was a
remnant of
the
original cloud but now it is believed to be an unrelated passing cloud that is reflecting the starlight. The Pleiades is
about 450 light years away -- quite close considering that our Milky Way may be over 100,00 light years
across.
How to find: since the Pleiades is so large and bright, finding it is easy especially if you know the Belt of
Orion or Aldebaran, the bright red star in Taurus. In Fall and early Winter, look to the east to southeast in
the evening. In later Winter, look south to southwest. Once you find the three bright stars that form the
Belt of
Orion, follow it to Aldebaran and continue to the
Pleiades.
For more help in viewing the Pleiades, click here.
For help in
understanding magnitude brightness of stars, click here.
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