Montana Skies - Venus and Jupiter

In tonight's Montana Skies - Dr. Kelly Cline tells us more about a cluster of stars that have played a role in the history of some cultures.

     Wow!  Venus and Jupiter make an unbelievable one-two punch of stunning brightness in the evening sky.  Look for Venus low in the Southwest, appearing at sunset as a knock-your-eyes-out bright star, setting at around 10 or 11.  Jupiter is almost as bright as Venus, and is higher up in the Southwestern sky, so it stays up until after midnight.  If you follow in a line from Venus, to Jupiter, and one step farther, you'll find a fuzzy little blob which is the Pleiades star cluster, sometimes called the seven sisters.  Through a telescope, they look something like this:

     This is a young cluster containing about three thousand stars which all formed together about 100 million years ago out of one enormous cloud of gas and dust out in space.  Over time, the stars of the Pleiades are gradually spreading out and dispersing into our galaxy.  The Pleiades is the brightest star cluster anywhere in the sky and so peoples all around the world were intrigued and fascinated by them.  The Navajo Indians saw the Pleiades as the powerful Black God, creator of fire and light.

     And the ancient Greeks of Athens built their great temple, the Parthenon, lined up toward where the Pleiades rise.  The Pleiades have caught the eye and sparked the imagination throughout all of history. So tonight, take a look at Venus, Jupiter, and the Pleiades cluster, up in our Beautiful Montana Skies!