⁂ Pleiades

  The Pleiades are a star cluster in Taurus.

                  ⠂      ⠈
                                ⠄         ⠈   ⠐
                       ⢀  ⠂       ⠁ ...    ⠁
        ⢀           ⠐             ..::...
                              ..⠤...:•:..
                             ..⠒•⠒:...⠂..
                             ..:⠉⠁:........
                    ⢀.        .⠁....  ..·..
      ...⡀.      ...::...            ..⠤...
     ...•...    ..::⠤:::.. ⡀        ..⠒•⠒:..
    ..:⠒•⠒:..   ..:⠒●⠒::..          ..:⠉::..
    ..::⠉::..   ...:⠉::⡀.........    ......
     .......      ...... ..::•:..
    ⡀     ⠂               ..:::..          ⠂
                            ...   ⠂
          ⢀
                      ⠈

  Type            Star cluster
  Constellation   Taurus
  Magnitude       1.6
  Apparent size   110′ (4× the full Moon)
  You need        naked eye from a dark sky

  Known as
  Messier         M45

  Physical
  Distance        444 light years
  Stars           about 1,000, of which 6 or 7 are naked-eye
  Age             100 million years

  More information about Pleiades

  The Pleiades are a group of young stars, around 100 million years old,
  that formed together and are still loosely travelling together through
  the galaxy. Six of them are easy to see with the naked eye and picking
  out the seventh is a traditional test of eyesight; binoculars show
  dozens more. The group covers about four times the width of the full
  Moon, which is why a telescope is the wrong instrument for them: it
  magnifies so much that you end up inside the cluster without ever seeing
  its shape. It is the best-named object in the sky, because almost every
  tradition named it separately: Japanese 昴, Subaru, "gathered together";
  Sanskrit कृत्तिका, Krittika, the first of the 27 nakshatras; Maori
  Matariki, which opens the year; and Arabic الثريا, al-Thurayya, "the
  abundant one". What they share is the count: nearly everyone says seven,
  and six is all most people can see.

  Not settled: The Greek name has been derived from πλεῖν, plein, "to
  sail", from πλέος, pleios, "full", and from the mother Πληιόνη, Pleione.
  None is settled.

  History
  Discovered   known since antiquity, and named in the Iliad

  Etymology
  From         Greek
  Reading      Pleiades  ·  Πλειάδες
  Literally    disputed

  Greek     Pleiades     ─┐
  Arabic    al-Thurayya  ─┤
  Sanskrit  Krittika     ─┼──▶
  Japanese  Subaru       ─┤
  Maori     Matariki     ─┘
  
    no shared root: five traditions named it five times, and four
    of them counted seven where six are all most people see

  Messier was hunting comets. He compiled his list between 1758 and 1781
  as a register of things that look like comets but are not. That's why
  the objects on it have nothing in common beyond being fuzzy and staying
  put.

  where it is tonight:  skymap.sh/Pleiades