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Commonly known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45 (Gibson, n.a).

Although the cluster is home to hundreds of stars, more specifically just over 1400 individual stars (Sweeny- Justice, 2017).  Only few are visible to the naked eye. Some of these include Pleione, Atlas, Alcyone, Merope, Electra, Celaeno, Maia, Taygeta, and Asterope (Gibson, n.a).

Stars are believed to have formed together approximately 100 MYA (Gibson, n.a).

Stars within Pleiades are thought to be around 425 light years away, or 130 parsecs (Gibson, n.a), although there has been a long going discussion into the actual distance of Pleiades.

Star appear to lie just around the celestial equator of the Taurus constellation (Sweeny- Justice, 2017).

Within the northern hemisphere the stars are viewed to the right of Orion, during January around 8pm, Midnight in November, and 4am in September (Gibson, n.a).

A useful website for finding altitude and azimuth in real time is https://www.astro.princeton.edu/observatory/observinglist.php?time=-1&sort=alt, as it is always changing.

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Alcyone, the brightest visible star, is actually 300 times brighter than the sun (Encyclopedia, 2001).

In approximately 250 years Pleiades will be pulled apart by tidal interactions (Plotner, 2017).

Pleiades- pronounced plai-edi-z (Constellation Guide, 2013).

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(Bagnall,2011)

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(Free Stars Chart, n.a)

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(Peterson, 2018)

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-Admin. (2013, July 08). Pleiades: The Seven Sisters. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from http://www.constellation-guide.com/pleiades-the-seven-sisters-messier-45/

-Alison Klesman  |  Published: Monday, August 28, 2017. (2017, August 28). Scientists find that the stars in the Pleiades are variable. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from http://www.astronomy.com/news/2017/08/kepler-discovers-pleiades-variability

-Encyclopedia.com. (2018). Pleiades. Retrieved October 7, 2018, from https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/astronomy-and-space-exploration/astronomy-general/pleiades-astronomy

-Freestarcharts.com. (n.d.). Messier 45 - M45 - The Pleiades (Open Cluster). Retrieved October 7, 2018, from https://freestarcharts.com/messier-45

-Gibson, S. (n.d.). The Pleiades. Retrieved October 8, 2018, from             https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/

-Gibson, S. (n.d.). Pleiades Mythology. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.naic.edu/~gibson/pleiades/pleiades_myth.html

-Petersen, C. C., & Hubble Space Telescope. (2018, August 29). Taurus Has the Most Fascinating Star Cluster. Retrieved October 7, 2018, from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-hyades-star-cluster-4025029

-Plotner, T. (2017, June 05). Messier 45 - The Pleiades Cluster. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://www.universetoday.com/34994/messier-45-pleiades/

-Sweeny-Justice, K. (2017, April 24). How to Find Pleiades. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from https://sciencing.com/pleiades-6465018.html

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(Constellation Guide, 2013)

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There are hundreds of stars found in the Pleiades star cluster but commonly only seven are visible to the naked eye. These visible stars are Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Taygete (Gibson, n.a).

Majority of the stars within Pleiades are pulsating B-type stars, this means they are massive stars that change brightness usually within every five days (Klesman, 2017).

Within the constellation the star Maia is different, where the other stars exhibit change in luminosity every one to five days Maia changes in 10 day cycles (Klesman, 2017).

Pleiades is moving through a “cloud of interstellar dust” (Plotner, 2017).

In addition to the star cluster Pleiades contains the diffuse reflection nebula known as the Merope Nebula, as it surrounds the Merope star (Constellation Guide, 2013). The visual magnitude of the Nebula is 13 (Constellation Guide, 2013).

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There are many myths associated with Pleiades, for the individual stars and the constellation as a whole. The Pleiades are known and mentioned in many ancient cultures across the globe, some include the Japanese, Chinese, Persians, Maya, Aztec, Cherokee, Roman, Greek, and the Indigenous Australians.

The greek mythology tells that the Seven Sisters or Pleiades were the daughters of Pleione and Atlas. They were also thought to be the nymphs present on the train of Artemis (Gibson, n.a).

Alcyone- in greek mythology the “queen who wards of evil” (Gibson, n.a).

Asterope- “lightning, twinkling, sun-face” (Gibson, n.a). Believed that Oenomaus was her husband, with whom she had many children (Gibson, n.a). She was also believed to be the river Cebrennus daughter (Gibson, n.a).

Celaeno- “swarthy”(Gibson, n.a). There are hardly any myths associated with this star except the belief that she had sons Chimaeras and Lycus (Gibson, n.a).

Electra- “Bright, shining, amber” (Gibson, n.a). There are many origin stories for Electra. In one she was the mother of the founder of Troy, Dardanus (Gibson, n.a). In another she was the daughter of Oedipus (Gibson, n.a).

Maia- “other, the great one, grandmother” (Gibson, n.a). Maia was thought to be the most beautiful and the eldest sister, in Roman mythology she was the goddess of spring (Gibson, n.a).

Merope- “Mortal, bee-eater. Eloquent” (Gibson, n.a). In one story was the daughter of the king of Chios, Oenopion. Orion had fallen in love with her but Oenopion would not give her up(Gibson, n.a).

Taygete- “long- necked” (Gibson, n.a). The story goes that Taygete gave birth to the founder of Sparta, Lacedaemon and would not yield to the god Zeus and so she was disguised as Artemis to escape him (Gibson, n.a). Another story says that Taygete was married to Lacedaemon (Gibson, n.a).