During late April, brilliant Venus moves through the stellar background of Taurus with its two bright star clusters: Pleiades and Hyades.
On April 24, Venus is closest to Alcyone, the brightest star in the Pleiades cluster. They are 3.5 degrees apart.
The Pleiades is a compact grouping of bright bluish stars known to school children as “The Seven Sisters.” The cluster resembles a tiny dipper. To the unaided eye, 6 or 7 stars are visible. A dozen or so through binoculars. A few hundred through telescopes. The Hyades are nearby. This group resembles a check mark, a letter “V” when Aldebaran is included, although it is not part of the cluster.
Astronomical theory describes that stars are formed in bunches from a stellar, gaseous nebula. Over time the mutual gravitation pull of the stars within the cluster is not strong enough to keep the group together. The Hyades and Pleaides are close enough (within 400 light years) that they can be seen without a telescope. Many star clusters are just beyond the perception of our eyes.
The star cluster pair is best-observed through binoculars, Start observing Venus’ movement through the region nightly at mid-month. On April 18, the crescent moon appears among the Hyades.
Watch the events unfold during the spring evenings.
For more about Venus and the bright evening planets, see these articles:
- 2018: Five Planets Visible at Once
- 2018, Summer: Evening Planet Parade: Five Bright Planets Visible During One Evening
- 2018: Venus the Evening Star
- 2017-2019: Mars Observing Year with a Perihelic Opposition, July 27, 2018
- 2018: Mars Perihelic Opposition
- 2017-2018: Jupiter’s Year in the Claws of the Scorpion, A Triple Conjunction
- 2018: Three Planets at Opposition in 79 days
- 2018: Saturn with the Teapot