• M45 - Pleiades

    Object image

    M45 Pleiades, by Bob Star, NJNS Star Party (cc-by)

    Object image source

    Bob Star, NJNS Star Party
    Permission
    cc-by

    Like bright jewels on the back of Taurus sit the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a tiny cluster of brilliant bluish stars. Most people can see 6 stars, but in antiquity 7 were visible. With binoculars or a telescope you can see many more.

    Tennyson wrote:

    Many a night I saw the Pleiades
    rising thro’ the mellow shade,
    Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies
    tangled in a silver braid.

    In Middle Earth, the Pleiades were known as Remmirath (the Netted Stars). (Rachel Folmar)

  • M101 - Pinwheel Galaxy

    Object image

    M101, European Space Agency & NASA

    Object image caption

    M101. Image: European Space Agency & NASA Acknowledgements: Project Investigators for the original Hubble data: K.D. Kuntz (GSFC), F. Bresolin (University of Hawaii), J. Trauger (JPL), J. Mould (NOAO), and Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, Urbana) Image processing: Davide De Martin (ESA/Hubble) CFHT image: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/J.-C. Cuillandre/Coelum NOAO image: George Jacoby, Bruce Bohannan, Mark Hanna/NOAO/AURA/NSF

    Object image source

    European Space Agency & NASA
    Permission
    cc-by