See the almost-full moon drift past the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) on Wednesday, Dec. 3, in a spectacular close encounter visible after dark.
A handful of diamonds, a fuzzy cloud of light, a baby dipper. Just three of the ways skywatchers describe the familiar Pleiades star cluster are among the most beautiful objects in the entire night sky .
This Wednesday, Dec. 3, the Pleiades — now easy to see high in the southeast after dark from the Northern Hemisphere — will be occulted, or eclipsed, by the moon. Here’s everything you need to know about the rare event.To see the event, head outside shortly after dark on Wednesday, Dec. 3, and you will see the moon shining just to the upper right of the Pleiades initially in the eastern night sky, moving to the southeast. As the night wears on, the moon will move through the Pleiades, with the best views from around 8:30 p.m. through midnight local time across North America.— making it especially bright. It will appear to pass just under a degree from the Pleiades, creating a spectacular contrast between the glowing lunar surface and the delicate sparkle of the cluster. In some locations, individual stars of the cluster may briefly skim the moon’s edge or even be occulted. However, since the moon will be so bright, a pair of binoculars will be required to see the Pleiades around the lunar limb.The Pleiades, located about 444 light-years from Earth, form a tight grouping of hot, blue stars estimated to be around 100 million years old, making it a relatively young cluster of stars. However, a scientific paper in November recently revealed that the Pleiades we see is merely the dense core of a much larger Greater Pleiades Complex — a newly defined stellar structure — that stretches nearly 2,000 light-years across.Using data from NASA’s TESS and ESA’s Gaia satellite on the precise motions of stars, over 3,000 stars were found that share age, motion and composition, indicating a common origin within one huge stellar nursery. The discovery sheds light on how once-compact clusters of stars disperse across the Milky Way over hundreds of millions of years.Just one night later, the Cold Moon reaches 100% fullness on Thursday, Dec. 4. It rises during twilight and will look best on Friday, Dec. 5, as it ascends through slightly darker skies. Later in the month, the Geminid meteor shower — the strongest of the year — peaks on Dec. 13-14, promising about 120 “shooting stars” per hour.
Pleiades Seven Sisters Full Moon Star Cluster Conjunction Stargazing Taurus Astronomy Night Sky
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See The Moon Eclipse The Seven Sisters On Wednesday In Close EncounterSee the almost-full moon drift past the Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) on Wednesday, Dec. 3, in a spectacular close encounter visible after dark.
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