"Steamboat Springs — High overhead as darkness falls on cold January evenings is a tiny cluster of stars that is often mistaken for the Little Dipper.
Although it does have a dipper shape, with a tiny little bowl and a tiny little handle, its real name is the Pleiades star cluster. It is the 45th object in Charles Messier’s famous catalog of comet look-alikes (M45), and is popularly known as the Seven Sisters. In Japan, it is called the Subaru. A likeness of the Pleiades star cluster adorns every Subaru car out there on the road.
A person with average vision should have no difficulty in seeing the six brightest stars in the Pleiades and a bit of careful searching should reveal a seventh faint star, as well. A person with exceptional eyesight might make out as many as eight, nine or even 10 stars with their unaided eye. How many can you see?..."
(Jimmy Westlake)
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