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The Heavenly Sisters

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Abstract

The Pleiades is an open cluster of stars recognizable the world over. With an apparent diameter of four full Moons, and comprised of many bright stars, it is extremely obvious to the naked eye. It is no surprise, then, that this cluster has figured so prominently in astronomy and star lore throughout the world and throughout the ages. This chapter explains the scientific nature of open clusters before going on to present some of the myriad star lore concerned with this single object and the way it relates to the other major objects in the night sky, such as Orion and the Southern Cross.

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Notes

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© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Chadwick, S.R., Paviour-Smith, M. (2017). The Heavenly Sisters. In: The Great Canoes in the Sky. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22623-1_7

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