Known by many names in different societies, the most common myth explaining the Pleiades is no doubt the Greek one. The gods of Atlas & Pleione, more accurately Titans, had 2 sets of daughters. One set is the Hyades. The other set are the 7 sisters represented by the Messier 45 cluster.
The actual sisters are curiously NOT the 7 brightest stars in the cluster, although 1 of them, Alcyone, is the very brightest. Atlas, their father, is next, followed by Electra, Maia, Merope, & Taygeta. Then their mother, Pleione, steps in, appropriately right beside her husband. Finally Celaeno & Sterope finish out the sisters.
The magnificent blue Nebula that the stars reside in is as spectacular as the bright blue stars themselves, but it is only a chance encounter. M45 is the first object in the Messier catalogue that almost surely wouldn''t be confused as a comet. This suggests that Messier eventually was simply making a list of nice objects, not entirely "false comets". |
Great AAPOD David, it really shows off the reflection nebula this cluster is moving threw. 