The counterpoint to the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus the Bull is the Hyades. The open v-shaped cluster contains nearly 200 stars and appears to be punctuated by the red giant star, Aldebaran. Although Aldebaran is about 65 light years from Earth, and the Hyades cluster is about 2½ times farther away from us, we observe them lining up as the face and eye of the bull.

This large bright collection of stars has been observed from ancient times. Its place in mythology is the weeping half-sisters to the Pleiades. The Hyades’ sunrise appearance signaled the rainy season in the Mediterranean. Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “Ulysses,” notes “the rainy Hyades.”

Notably, the tip of the north horn of the bull is the bright star, El Nath. Its original Babylonian name roughly referenced the star’s placement with Auriga the Charioteer. Before the redefined constellation boundaries in 1930, El Nath was one of the few stars to share constellations.

The original Babylonian name for the south horn star was Shurnarkabtishashutu, meaning, “the faint star at the tip of the left end of the bull.” Close by is the Crab Nebula, M1, the remnants of an aging star’s cataclysmic explosion about 1,000 years ago. The faded nebula is visible with a telescope, but the Hyades is on vivid display to the unaided eye.

First Published: February 23, 2021, 11:00 a.m.