Astronomy Picture of the Day 12-01-02

NASA ^ | 12-01-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 December 1

The Pleiades Star Cluster
Credit & Copyright: David Malin (AAO), ROE, UKS Telescope

Explanation: It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades is one of the brightest and closest open clusters. The Pleiades contains over 3000 stars, is about 400 light years away, and only 13 light years across. Quite evident in the above photograph are the blue reflection nebulae that surround the bright cluster stars. Low mass, faint, brown dwarfs have recently been found in the Pleiades.

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Fun Fact:

The Pleiades are the most recognizable star cluster worldwide; they can be seen from the North Pole to as far as 65 degrees south latitude! The best observing month is January.

There are actually several hundred stars in the cluster; most are faint (i.e., near the luminosity of our own sun).

[petuniasevan]

Wallpaper night!!!

[petuniasevan]

And I do know that not everyone is familiar with the night sky. Not only are the Pleiades (M45) visible to the naked eye, they look great in low-power binoculars. So here's a finder chart (oriented for Northern Hemisphere):

The lower left corner shows the brightness of the stars, 1st (bright) through 6th (faint) magnitude.

[firewalk]

Thank you

[Savage Beast]

You know those dolphins who visited the Dogans? Didn't they come from the Pleiades?

[lonestar]

bump

[foolish-one]

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks.