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Ephemeris: 12/05/2023 – The Hyades, face of Taurus and an important star cluster

December 5, 2023 Comments off

This is Bob Moler with Ephemeris for Tuesday, December 5th. Today the Sun will be up for 8 hours and 58 minutes, setting at 5:02, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:05. The Moon, at last quarter today, will rise at 1:11 tomorrow morning.

At 8 o’clock this evening the constellation of Orion the hunter is still in the act of rising with one leg still stuck in the snow. What is up above him is the constellation of Taurus the bull. His face is a letter V of stars or as a letter A, as I mentioned yesterday, is the star cluster called the Hyades. In Greek myth the stars are the half sisters of the Pleiades, which are right above them. The Hyades star cluster is very special. They don’t look as splashy as the Pleiades which are younger and still have their hot blue white stars. However, the Hyades are much closer in fact they’re close enough to be measured by trigonometry using the earth’s orbit as the base of a triangle, like surveyors would do on Earth.

The astronomical event times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (EST, UT –5 hours). They may be different for your location.

Addendum

I call this image a family portrait of the half sisters of the Hyades and the Pleiades, according to Greek mythology. This is because the Pleiades are also called the Seven Sisters. The Hyades reside at a distance of 153 light years, and the Pleiades 444. The bright star Aldebaran, which looks like it’s part of the Hyades called Aldebaran is a foreground star that’s 65 light years away, less than half their distance. Credit: mine, annotated with LibreOffice Draw.
The constellation of Taurus the bull showing constellation art from Stellarium above Orion, just rising with Betelgeuse and Rigel. Created using Stellarium.
Categories: Constellations, Ephemeris Program, Mythology, Star Cluster