Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  19 Tau)  ·  25 Tau)  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  IC 349  ·  IC 353  ·  IC 354  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  Sterope I (21 Tau)  ·  The star 18 Tau  ·  The star 33 Tau  ·  The star Alcyone (η Tau  ·  The star Asterope  ·  The star Atlas (27 Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16 Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17 Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23 Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28 Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (q Tau
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Pleiades between the clouds, Gustav Lundby
Pleiades between the clouds
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Pleiades between the clouds

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Pleiades between the clouds, Gustav Lundby
Pleiades between the clouds
Powered byPixInsight

Pleiades between the clouds

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Testing possible problem with worm drive on my new Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTI

The Pleiades are a group of stars in the constellation Taurus, also known as the Seven Sisters, M45, or NGC 1432¹²³. They are an open star cluster, meaning they are a group of stars that were born around the same time from a giant cloud of gas and dust¹²³. They are among the nearest star clusters to Earth, lying at a distance of about 444 light years¹²³.

The Pleiades have been known since ancient times, and have been associated with various myths and legends in different cultures¹²³. In Greek mythology, they were the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione, who were pursued by the hunter Orion and turned into stars by Zeus¹². In some accounts, they were also the companions of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt². In astronomy, they were used to mark the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea¹.

The Pleiades contain about 1,000 stars, but only nine are visible to the naked eye under good conditions¹²³. The brightest stars are named after the seven sisters in Greek mythology: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete[^1]^ [2]^ [3]^ . They also have names based on their Bayer designations: Alcyone is Eta Tauri, Asterope is 21 and 22 Tauri, Celaeno is 16 Tauri, Electra is 17 Tauri, Maia is 20 Tauri, Merope is 23 Tauri, and Taygete is 19 Tauri[^1]^ [2]^ [3]^ . The other two visible stars are Atlas (27 Tauri) and Pleione (28 Tauri), the parents of the sisters[^1]^ [2]^ [3]^ .

The Pleiades have an apparent magnitude of 1.6 and an apparent size of 110 arc minutes, or about four times the size of the full moon[^1]^ [2]^ . They can be seen with the naked eye as a bright cluster of stars near the star Aldebaran in Taurus[^1]^ [2]^ . They can also be seen with binoculars or a small telescope as a dazzling array of stars with different colors and brightnesses[^1]^ [2]^ . They are best seen from the northern hemisphere during winter months[^2]^.

Kilde: Samtale med Bing, 18.6.2023
(1) Pleiades - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades.
(2) Pleiades (Greek mythology) - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades_%28Greek_mythology%29.
(3) Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster | Space. https://www.space.com/pleiades.html.

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Pleiades between the clouds, Gustav Lundby

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