Pleiades

The Pleiades is a small, tight cluster of bright stars located in the constellation Taurus, which lies on the ecliptic between Gemini and Ar- ies. High in the sky at night from October through March, this group is sometimes described as a swarm of twinkling flies on the celestial bull’s shoulder, and sometimes as a miniature dipper, since its stars look like a squashed ladle. Its most common moniker, however, is the Seven Sisters.
In Greek Myth, the Pleiades were the seven beautiful daughters of Atlas and Pleione. These virgin consorts of Artemis appealed to the gods for help when the hunter Orion pursued them. Transformed into doves, the sis- ters flew into the sky to escape Orion’s advances. There they remain, with Orion to the southeast, forever chasing them through the heavens.
The Pleiades is one of the first star-groups I learned to recognize in my childhood, along with Orion and the Big Dipper. My mother patiently showed us how to locate this cluster of stars: Beginning at Orion, draw an imaginary straight line from Bellatrix, the yellowish star marking Orion’s left shoulder (the right-hand one when viewed from Earth) through Al- debaran, the bright orange star marking the eye of Taurus. From there, the line points directly at the small bunch of bright stars that is the Pleiades. When I look up at this star cluster, I am reminded of my grandmother Chris and her bevy of sisters.
Nearly every winter of my childhood, my parents packed us into the camper and set out for the long drive to visit Chris and my grandfather Olav, my dad’s parents, at their retirement place on the Gulf Coast of Florida.