{"id":309,"date":"2006-12-16T02:00:19","date_gmt":"2006-12-16T02:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/12\/16\/the_pleiades_na\/"},"modified":"2021-11-28T00:09:05","modified_gmt":"2021-11-28T00:09:05","slug":"the_pleiades_na","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/12\/16\/the_pleiades_na\/","title":{"rendered":"Messier 45 &#8211; The Pleiades &#8211; Naked Eye"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><a href=\"javascript:myVoid()\" onmouseover=\"rollover('img2006121401')\" onmouseout=\"rollout('img2006121401')\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006121401_PleiadesA.jpg\" name=\"img2006121401\" alt=\"Step 1\" border=\"1\" color=\"FFFFFF\"><\/a><br \/>\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><br \/>\n<!--\nsetrollover(\"http:\/\/www.perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/archives\/images\/2006\/img2006121401_PleiadesB.jpg\");\n\/\/--><br \/>\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i>Move mouse over sketch to see labels.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><b>Observation Notes:<\/b><\/p>\n<p>On the evening of this observation, I headed to Sunset Crater National Monument with the kids to see if we could catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis. That turned out to be a bust. But the kids had fun taking turns playing Kit Fox &amp; Prey as they chased each other around and around the cul-de-sac. Before heading home I decided to grab my stargazing glasses and make a naked-eye sketch of the Pleiades to see how many stars I could observe. I&#8217;m not sure where the Pleiades end and the field stars begin for a naked eye observation, but the sketch is presented above for you to decide.<\/p>\n<p>If you play the boundary close to the cluster, it looks like I picked up 10 stars. If you widen that boundary to include 18 Tauri and HIP 17776, then the number goes up to 12. There is a confusing thirteenth &#8216;star&#8217; plotted south-southwest of Alcyone (see question mark in the sketch mouse-over graphic). StarryNights Pro shows a couple 7th magnitude stars in this area in the midst of a string of trailing stars. I&#8217;m not sure if I saw one or the other, or the combined light of several stars in this string. So I&#8217;m not sure if I should count it. There is another faint star plotted east-northeast of Pleione that appears to be erroneous. I&#8217;m not sure if I misplotted a 6.5 mag star that&#8217;s closer &amp; more to the north of Pleione, but I&#8217;m definitely not counting that one.<\/p>\n<p>When first glancing at the Pleiades, six bright stars are fairly easy to see: Atlas, Alcyone, Maia, Taygeta, Electra, and Merope. They are noted by blue in the mouse-over graphic. The next to reveal themselves with averted vision are Asterope, Caleano, Pleione, and HIP17776 (noted by yellow in the mouse-over graphic). Of these four stars, Pleione is the most difficult. Despite being relatively bright (5th mag.), it hides right next to Atlas. With a lot more time spent darting my eyes around the area and working to confirm repeated sightings, I picked up HIP17900, 18 Tauri, and the questionable speck south-southwest of Alcyone (see red labels in the mouse-over graphic). Without my stargazing glasses, six stars was as good as it got.<\/p>\n<p>I found it entertaining to note the blinking effect the Pleiades exhibit as I looked directly at them, and then flicked my vision off to the side. The view changes from a geometric collection of solid points of light, to a misty spray in an instant. I definitely prefer the averted vision view. Give this beautiful patch of starlight a long look the next time you get a chance. See how many stars you can pick out, or just enjoy its concentrated brilliance.<\/p>\n<table color=\"ffffff\" width=\"470\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"2\" cellpadding-left=\"4\" style=\"line-height: 150%\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Subject<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b style=\"color: white\">Pleiades \/ M45<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Classification<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">Open Cluster<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Date\/Time<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">December 14, 2006 &#8211; 09:45 PM MST (December 15, 2006 &#8211; 04:45 UT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Observing Loc.<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">Cinder Hills Overlook, Sunset Crater National Monument, AZ<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Instrument<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">Naked eye<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Eyepieces\/Mag.<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">N\/A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Conditions<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">Calm, patchy, high thin cirrus<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Seeing<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">&#8211;<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\"><b>Transparency<\/b><\/td>\n<td bgcolor=\"#3f4d6d\">~ Mag 6.8 NELM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>M045 &#8211; Pleiades<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,18,11,24,19,21,25,22,48,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-sky","category-messier","category-observing-report","category-open-cluster","category-sg-deep-sky","category-sg-messier","category-sg-open-cluster","category-sg-star-cluster","category-sgc-taurus","category-sketch-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":213,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/11\/05\/m45_the_pleiade\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":0},"title":"Messier 45 &#8211; The Pleiades","author":"jperez1690","date":"November 5, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M045","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Deep Sky&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":96,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/02\/03\/m36\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":1},"title":"Messier 36","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M036","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Deep Sky&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/02\/13\/m34\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":2},"title":"Messier 34","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 13, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M034","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Deep Sky&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":104,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/02\/04\/m47_and_ngc_242\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":3},"title":"Messier 47 and NGC 2423","author":"jperez1690","date":"February 4, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M047","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Deep Sky&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2005\/03\/11\/m48\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":4},"title":"Messier 48","author":"jperez1690","date":"March 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"M048","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Deep Sky&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Deep Sky","link":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/category\/deep-sky\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":258,"url":"https:\/\/perezmedia.net\/beltofvenus\/2006\/08\/01\/m31_the_androme\/","url_meta":{"origin":309,"position":5},"title":"Messier 31, Messier 32, and Messier 110 &#8211; 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