"Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest,
Did I look on great Orion, sloping slowly to the west.
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid."
--- Tennyson
The Pleiades (M45) is an open cluster in the constellation of Taurus, also called the Seven Sisters. It is one of my favorite objects, a beautiful cluster of bright blue stars. The Pleiades contains a number of rapidly rotating Be stars (a particular interest of mine), including the famous Pleione (which was observed by WUPPE on the Astro-2 mission, flown on the space shuttle Endeavour (STS-67) in March 1995), and many of the brighter stars are embedded in reflection nebulosity. For a wonderful historical description of the Pleiades, see Burnham's Celestial Handbook, Vol III, page 1863ff. For more immediate info, check out the Web Nebulae page's description of M45.
Last updated 11 Sept 1997
If you have comments, questions, or suggestions regarding these pages, please send email. Thanks!
Karen S. Bjorkman (karen@astro.utoledo.edu)