Bob Moler's Ephemeris Blog

Ephemeris for Tuesday, January 24th.  The sun will rise at 8:09.  It’ll be up for 9 hours and 29 minutes, setting at 5:39.   The moon, 1 day past new, will set at 7:36 this evening.

To the upper right of the constellation Orion in the south in the evening is a letter V of stars with a bright orange star at one tip.  This is the face of  Taurus the bull.  In some constellation depictions the bull is charging Orion who is turned to face him.  The V of stars isn’t very bright and are outshone by the Pleiades star cluster to the right in Taurus’ shoulder.  In Greek mythology the V of stars are the Hyades, half sisters of the Pleiades.  It is a star cluster like the Pleiades and very important, because it is the closest star cluster to us at 153 light years distant.  It helped determine the scale of the universe.  The bright star at the tip is Aldebaran the follower (of the Pleiades).  It is not part of the Hyades and is less than half way to it at 65 light years.

* Times, as always are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of  Michigan.

Addendum

The Hyades, Orion and the Pleiades. Created using Cartes du Ciel