Astronomy Picture of the Day - Pleiades: The Seven Sisters Star Cluster

NASA ^ | 23 Feb, 2026 | Image Credit & Copyright: Kamil Fiedosiuk

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it as large and clear as this. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the Pleiades can be seen with the unaided eye even from the depths of a light-polluted city. With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the Pleiades star cluster becomes very evident. The featured 18-hour exposure, taken from Bory Tucholskie, Poland covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon. Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45, the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull (Taurus). A common legend with a modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six of the sister stars visible to the unaided eye. The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[No name given]

Wow.

[The Antiyuppie]

In Japanese, this cluster is called “Subaru” and you will see the stars in the logo of the car company by that name.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

The actual number of Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the darkness of the surrounding sky and the clarity of the observer's eyesight.

In 1981, on a very clear night in the Sierra Nevada, I saw ten Pleiades stars that I was certain of, but couldn't quite convince myself of the eleventh. Long time since I've seen more than the usual six, though.

[Telepathic Intruder]

It was once believed that the nebulosity within the Pleiades cluster was the original one from which it had formed. But because of very detailed long exposures like this, we now know that it is a completely different nebula that the cluster is merely passing through.

[Ronaldus Magnus III]

Thank G-d that President Donald Trump is in office.

These Seven Sisters would by now have been renamed something woke.

I just had to look up details to this “gender neutral” insanity, since most people I interact with are definitely not woke.

So, the different options are:

The Seven Sibsters

The Seven Theys

The Seven Spawns

The Seven Niblings

[MtnClimber]

The left would rename it to “The Seven Transgenders”.

[cymbeline]

Overexposed. Seven sisters engulfed in fog.

[telescope115]

An 18 hour exposure. That’s a LOT of data… I wonder just how many gigabytes.