THE USM SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Altitude: 10 feet below sea level
Founded January 1970
Julian date: 2458658.5
"The best revenge is the ability to turn everything to your advantage."
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Monday, June 24, 2019
Pre-dawn Pleiades
The Seven Sisters. Even though they're considered winter sky stars, the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) star cluster is now slowly ascending in the pre-dawn eastern sky.
Don't worry! Winter is at least two centuries in the future. However, even now in summer' infancy, we an see the first of the "winter" star patterns rising in the pre-dawn eastern sky. This "first" star agglomeration is the "Pleiades" also known as the Seven Sisters.
The word "Pleiades" derives from the Greek word "to sail," for it once rose with the Sun when the sailing season began years ago.
Astronomically, these stars are merely the visible members of a much larger aggregation of stars known as an OPEN, or Galactic Star Cluster. If observed telescopically, the Pleiades Star Cluster is seen to contain a couple hundred stars. The Seven Sisters Cluster is one of the night sky most enchanting sights, especially if seen in a time exposure photograph that reveals the subtle filaments of nebulosity enshrouding it.
Astronomers once believed these filaments to have been the remains of the gas dust cloud from which the cluster took form nearly 120 million years ago. Recently, however, astronomers discovered that the nebulous gases are traveling at different speeds and at a different directions than the stars themselves. They concluded that the Pleiades were not born from the gas that currently encloses them. Instead, the stars just happened to pass through this nebula on their way to somewhere else. The light emitted from the stars causes these nebula gases to glow by reflected light (like a candle causing a sphere of yellow light to appear in fog). It is for this reason that the Pleiades cluster is sometimes called a "reflection nebula."
It is close by, only about 410 light years, if you're looking for a beguiling vacation spot.
But, that's the astronomical aspect of the Pleaides and, well, enough of that, let's get to the juicy parts.
You see, mythologically, the Pleiades' sisters have had quite a history. In one story, Orion the Hunter (yes, him again), was in the forest looking for something to kill and he noticed seven sistersby a waterfall. He rather efficiently fell in love with ALL of them at the same time. The sisters, being afflicted by good sense and high standards, did not harbor the same affection for him and immediately ran away. Fortunately, Zeus (who had flings with a few of the sisters himself) intervened on their behalf by transforming them all into doves. Zeus assumed that Orion, even as desperate as he was, would lose interest in women who turned into birds.
And there they are: lovely sisters who thought they had enough problems when they were being chased by that lustful bore Orion, and now have to live as doves....to fly forever and ever away from Orion.
Yes.
But, that's not all of it!
You see, prior to their transformation, those sisters had interesting lives and have connections to some of celestial mythology's more illustrious characters.
These ladies were the daughters of the Titan Atlas and he Oceanid Pleione. Atlas was the muscular hunk who hoisted the world on his shoulders.
The sisters' names are MAIA, ELECTRA, TAYGETE, CELAENO, ALYCONE, STEROPE, and MEROPE.
Maia was the mother of Hermes, whose father was Zeus himself. Hermes was the Greek messenger of the Gods, the Romans know him as Mercury...that same patron saint of thieves and travelers that is the namesake of the planet we can see this week.
Electra was the mother of Dardanus,whose father was,um, Zeus again. Dardanus was father of Erechthonius who was the father of Tros who was the father of Ilus, who founded the city of Troy: the same city destroyed in the Trojan War, caused by the abduction of Helen.
Taygete was the mother of Lacedaemon, mythological ancestor of the all-too-real Spartan race (the race that devoted itself almost entirely to military readiness.) When Taygete attracted the attention of Zeus, whose eye was always wandering, Hera, Zeus' wife, turned her into a doe in an effort to make Zeus lose interest. It didn't work. Zeus was actually Lacedaemon's father. Taygete was turned back from a doe to a woman...only to be later turned into a dove. ha ha ha
Celaeno was the mother of Lycus by Posideon (Zeus must have had a headache that day.) Lycus became a King of Thebes who had many misadventures, including abandoning two of Zeus' children by his wife Antiope on a mountainside.
Alycone was the mother of Aethusa. Aethusa was the mother of Hyrieus by Apollo. Now, there is a real head-scratcher. Hyrieus never had any children, but he wanted an heir. He approached the gods Zeus, Posideon, and Hermes to ask them for their advice. "Oh, how do I gain an heir without children?" he asked them in desperate earnest. They instructed him to fetch a bull's hide. He was then to urinate on it and bury it. Nine months later, like a foul-smelling April tulip, Orion sprang from the spot. (And, yes the word Orion is derived from the word Urine due to his peculiar gestation.)
So, now, then, um, Alcyone is shown to be Orion's grand-grandmother and so Orion, by chasing the Pleaides, is pursuing his own ancestor in lustful earnest.
{And you thought Nuclear Astrophysics was complicated}
Sterope was the mother of Oenomaus by Ares, known to the Romans as Mars, God of War. Oenomaus eventually became king of Pisa.
and
Merope was the one sister who actually loved a mortal. This mortal, Sisyphus, was a piece of work and a half. He once enraged Zeus by telling tales of his exploits out in the open (as though everybody didn't know about them anyway.) Zeus sent Thanatos (DEATH) to get Sisyphus. Well, Sisyphus was known for his great cunning and dexterity. He managed to bind Thanatos' hands and feet together and threw him in his dungeon. Consequently, during his incarceration, mortals didn't die. This event enraged Hades who eventually got even with Sisyphus by punishing him in Tartarus.
Tartarus was the place where the truly horrid mortals were punished in amazingly creative ways. Sispyphus was the one required to roll a rock uphill all day long, only to have it roll back down to the bottom at night. So, everyday, Sisyphus is tormented by the strain of his vain exertions.
Merope is the dimmest of the seven visible stars.
It is said that she is dimmest because of her shame at loving a mortal.
Goes to show....there can be a lot of mythology in a little splotch of light.
