Yesterday we suppose to have met the seven sisters in the evening, but the luck was not on our side. Yes all seven of them. Well if you are like most of us who have eye sight that is not comparable to the eagle, one can only see 5 to 6 of them with naked eyes. I am talking about the Pleiades cluster. PDO Planetarium invited us to watch them through 10 inches telescope directed towards the cluster so people could get closer to admire stars. Due to clouds covering almost everywhere you look in the east skies of Muscat, nothing could be seen. Pleiades have taken its place very extensively in most of ancient and modern cultures including the Greek mythology, the Persian and the Arabs. The Pleiades stars "Seven Sisters" according to Greek mythology, are the seven daughters and their father Atlas. Their Japanese name is "Subaru", which many of us can associate with the car and its branded logo of stars. The Persian have named it "Soraya", after which the former Iranian empress was named. Coincidently the Swahili culture calls it "kilimia" from the word "kulima" for those who can speak the language as it is been associated with signs of raining season for farmers to start planting "kulima". The Arabic poetry had no less interest in the Pleiades, beautiful poems have been sculptured describing their beauty and glamour. It appears that the Arabic name for the Pleiades may come from the word "Tharwa" meaning wealth and probably for the same reason when associated with raining season. Scientifically, the sisters are approximately 440 +/-6 light-years away! also known as Messier 45 (M45). So if you want to join any one of the seven sisters, better have a good stamina and a Ferrari with speed of light and of course a fuel that will last you 440 years if you are still alive! .
Note: for those who still want to see the seven sisters, they can visit the PDO Planetarium, they have got a nice show about them. Very entertaining I guarantee, and thanks to the efforts that went into producing it.
Happy Stargazing
Happy Stargazing
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3 comments:
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thank you johnlazy for your valuable comments
HEY Mohammed , finally visiting your site, what a wonderful writer you are !!
keep up the amazing work!!
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