| The Seven Sisters, an Open Cluster in Tarus consists of as many as 250 members, |
| the brightest of which are Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, Pleione, |
| Celaeno and Asterope. One of the closest open clusters at approx 126 parsecs or |
| 410 light years distant. Nine of the brightest members are all B type giants and are |
| concentrated in a region about seven light years in diameter. Suggested age of this |
| cluster is 20 million years based upon their stellar evolution. This cluster is drifting |
| through space in a SSE direction at an apparent rate of about 5.5" per 100 years. |
| The entire swarm of stars is enveloped in a faint diffuse nebulosity which appears |
| to shine by reflected light. Elusive for the visual observer this nebulosity becomes |
| much more visible and shows spectacular detail on long exposure photographs. |
