Pleiades up close...and car-talk(!)

Event Date: March 27th
Time: 8:30 PM

Brief

   I showed the Pleiades star cluster in yesterday's entry, yet only magnified it enough to see with a 9º binocular field.  After all, I wanted to include Venus and the Moon as well, which made a triangle shape with the cluster within that same field.  The cluster, when looked at either with binoculars or the eyes alone, has a triangle or "wedge" shape to it.  As mentioned yesterday also, some viewers who have never seen the cluster with the eye alone, mistake it with the Little Dipper asterism; I elaborated on how this mistake can be avoided by knowing where the Little Dipper is in the sky.  See yesterday's detailed section for more on that.  For now, I will show a telescopic field of view of 2º for the Pleiades, and include a little more information about it; see the image below the detail.

*click on image to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

   Let's get this section of the entry off to a fun note:  First of all, do you own a Subaru for your road journeys?  If so, have you ever paid attention to the logo?  This link shows several variations of it:
http://www.google.com/search?q=subaru+logo&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pRdAT5adNMLfiALUloWtAQ&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=836&bih=436
Whether you own one, lease one, or just pass them while walking a parking lot, you may have noticed that the logo is inspired by the Pleiades.  Subaru means unite, and if we think of the Seven Sisters story for the Pleiades, the clustering of them shows true unity!  As for the cluster itself, it is an  open star cluster as opposed to a globular cluster.  Open clusters contain stars which are loosely bound by gravity, while globulars' stars are tightly bound.  In each case, the stars come from the same molecular cloud.  In the case of the Pleiades, the stars are very hot and luminous, while also quite young: the last 100 million years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades shows many more images of the Pleiades, as well as information.  The cluster is slightly further north on our celestial dome than the Sun, at 24º north.
Why does this matter?  If you recall what I talked about yesterday with the Moon's orbit having ecliptic latitude extremes of 5 1/2º, with two nodes, that is why.  As further elaboration, I will dive back into the Moon's orbit topic tomorrow.  For now, think about what the orbit means for the Pleiades and the Moon, in regards to angular separation between the two...or lack thereof at times!  I will go into more detail about that as the Moon's orbit's main characteristic puts the Moon in slightly different parts of the sky.