This is an excellent time of year to observe the gorgeous and mythologically-important star cluster which goes by many names in the various cultures of our earth, and which is most familiar to
civilizations influenced by ancient Greece by the name of the Pleiades (a name which signifies the "daughters of Pleione," Pleione being an immortal daughter of Oceanus).
Now that Hallowe'en and All Hallow's Day have past, and the Moon is beginning to wane towards New Moon again, we have an opportune window for the next two weeks in which to observe the region of the night sky shown in the star-chart above, including the dazzling Pleiades, which are rising in the east during the hours after sunset at this time of year.
The chart above shows the mighty forms of Hercules and Ophiuchus sinking down into the west in the hours after sunset, followed by Sagittarius and the planets Jupiter and Saturn, which are presently close to the head of Sagittarius (I have circled these two planets in the star-chart above).
Above Jupiter and Saturn you can easily find the two "great birds of the Milky Way," Aquila the Eagle and Cygnus the Swan, whose brightest individual stars are Altair (in Aquila) and Deneb (in Cygnus), respectively. These two bright stars together with the brightest star in the constellation Lyra the Lyre (the star Vega) make up what is known as the "Summer Triangle," because these three are high in the sky during the summer months of the northern hemisphere, although now that we are moving through autumn the stars of the Summer Triangle are much further towards the west as the sky grows dark after sundown.
In the chart above I have also circled the location of the Red Planet, Mars, which is now high in the sky and very bright during the hours after sunset, and located in between the Great Square and the "eye" of the constellation Cetus the Whale, as discussed in this previous post.
One of the easiest ways to locate the beautiful cluster of the Pleiades is to look below the most-visible and easily-identified "foot" of the constellation Perseus, which is a constellation consisting of several fairly bright stars in its outline and easily located if you know what to look for and where to look. Perseus is presently rising in the east during the hours following sunset, now fairly high above the eastern horizon by the time the sky grows dark (a month ago Perseus would be much lower above the eastern horizon as the sky grew dark).
The Pleiades are located in between the most-visible "foot" of Perseus and the V-shaped group of stars in Taurus known as the Hyades. In the mythology of ancient Greece, the Hyades were sisters of the Pleiades. The star-chart below shows the sky a couple hours later than the chart above, and zooms-in slightly in order to show the respective locations of the Hyades and the Pleiades more clearly:
The stars of the Hyades form a distinctive "V" in the sky, the two tips of this "V" pointing directly to two stars which I like to envision as the two horns of the Bull of Taurus (I differ from the outlining system suggested by H. A. Rey in this particular regard).
As you can see from the second chart above, another way to locate the Hyades is to use the very distinctive constellation Orion, which is rising in the east and clears the eastern horizon by about 9pm or 9:30, depending on your latitude and the terrain to the east of your observation point. The chart above should help you to find the V-shaped Hyades relative to the location of Orion, and then you should be able to find the Pleiades in between the Hyades and the foot of the constellation Perseus.
The charts above are for the 5th of November of this year: each night after that, the Moon will be rising later and later and will be waning (becoming thinner as it moves towards its final crescent stage prior to New Moon on the 14th of November).
If you have access to a good pair of binoculars or a telescope, I would highly recommend using their enhanced optics to observe the cluster of the Pleiades, after you have located the Pleiades with your naked eye.
The Pleiades play different roles in the world's ancient myths. Often, they are described as being seven in number (although you will see that there are many more stars than seven in the Pleiades cluster, if you look at them using binoculars or a telescope).
A previous post discussing the celestial foundations of the story of Balaam and the talking donkey (found in the Old Testament book of Numbers) provides my analysis in which Balaam (and his "twisted foot") is associated with the constellation Perseus, and the "seven altars" described in the text, upon which Balaam makes burnt offerings of bulls and rams, are almost certainly associated with the seven blazing stars of the Pleiades. Note that the Pleiades are located in between the Ram of Aries and the Bull of Taurus, which is an additional detail which supports this interpretation of the seven altars described in the ancient scriptures.
This previous post discusses the analysis of James Mavor and Byron Dix in their 1989 book entitled Manitou, which shows that the Upton Chamber in Massachusetts is aligned with the setting of the Pleiades above a hill across a body of water from the opening of the Chamber, and that cairns upon the skyline of that hill form a kind of "front sight" window between which the stars of the Pleiades could be seen to set by an observer within the Upton Chamber at the appropriate time of year.
I myself have visited the Upton Chamber more than once, and written blog posts about the experience each time, the first one in 2011 here (the blog post about it was written in 2012) and the second time in 2016 (blog post here).
Among the Maori of Aotearoa, the beautiful cluster of the Pleiades is known as Matariki, and the heliacal rising of this cluster (when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon prior to sunrise) marks the beginning of the New Year -- usually observed in conjunction with either the following Full Moon or the following New Moon, thus making this observation a lunar and solar New Year, as was common in virtually all the ancient cultures of the world prior to the rise of literalist Christianity, which replaced the ancient ways with a solar-centered monotheistic and literalistic paradigm, embarking on a centuries-long campaign to obliterate the world's ancient wisdom wherever the agents of the new literalistic religion went.
But the stars and heavenly cycles continue to follow their ancient rhythms, pointing us back to the precious inheritance of myth and tradition given to every culture on earth in the far-distant past, and can still be seen wheeling their silent way across the celestial realm for those who are able to take the time to look.
I hope that you can make the effort to find the Pleiades at this time of year, if it is at all possible for you to do so, and that these dazzling stars will have significance to you as you meditate on their timeless importance and the wisdom given to us in the world's ancient myths.
