Winter Gem: The Pleiades

Looking East in early evening during December-January

The holidays are the perfect time to view one of the most dazzling star clusters in the night sky: the Pleiades, sometimes called the Seven Sisters.

Looking east in the early evening, the Pleiades rises ahead of Orion and occupies a relatively sparse region of the sky, making it quite distinctive when viewed from within city limits.

With binoculars the cluster comes alive, with the pattern of stars loosely resembling a miniaturized “Big Dipper” in its outline. From dark skies keen binocular observers might notice the faint wisps of nebulosity filling out the space in between the stars, a sight that grows exponentially more spectacular with a mid-size telescope.

Fun fact: The Subaru logo is based on the Pleiades, though it only depicts six of the seven stars.