Page:Star Lore Of All Ages, 1911.pdf/565

Rh good telescope six hundred stars have been counted, while in a photograph of the cluster taken in 1888 no less than two thousand three hundred and twenty-six stars were revealed.

Of this great galaxy of suns all are drifting across the heavens in the same direction. Two of the stars seem to be hurrying on in advance, like heralds announcing the coming of a host, and six are straggling behind as if wearied by their ceaseless journeying.

The Pleiades are said to be two hundred and fifty light years distant from our system. Our sun removed to this enormous distance would appear as a telescopic star of the tenth magnitude, barely discernible in a three-inch telescope.

Another fact of interest concerning this wonderful star group is that the spectroscope reveals that all these stars are similar in make-up. They all appear to be the product of a common mould, and are in that great class of stars of the Sirian type.

In addition to this the entire group is enshrouded in a nebulous haze, a net that seems to hold its contents fast.

Tennyson well describes the cluster in his line:

Bayard Taylor likened the Pleiades to a swarm of bees upon the mane of Taurus.

Astrologers considered the Pleiades eminent stars, but they denoted accidents to the sight or blindness.

The following list of titles given to this famous star group by the nations of the world ancient and modern attests the fact that of all the stars the Pleiades are the best known and the most celebrated.