In Japan, the cluster is mentioned under the name Mutsuraboshi (six stars) in the 8th-century Kojiki.[44] The cluster is now known in Japan as Subaru.

It was chosen as the name of the Subaru Telescope which is the 8.2-meter (320 in) flagship telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. It is located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on the island of Hawaii. It had the largest monolithic primary mirror in the world from its commissioning in 1998 until 2005.[45]

It was chosen as the brand name of Subaru automobiles to reflect the origins of the firm as the joining of five companies, and is depicted in the firm's six-star logo.[46]

Of course it looks a lot different with the naked eye; the number of visible stars is much fewer. (Which is why it was named for the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione and often referred to as the Seven Sisters!)

*Along with Orion and the Big Dipper. (Yes, my constellation identifying skills are limited, lol. But there's a ton of light pollution where I live, and that really does make it hard.)

Beautiful shot, moonshinegnomie!

other than that i really cant id any more than you can

i use something called plate solving to find a target. basically i take a picture of the sky and use software to id where in the sky im pointing. then the scope can move to the correct location.
theres actually a free online service that can do that from a night sky picture. you upload a photo and in about 10 minutes it id's all the deep sky stuff in the shot plus some of teh brighter stars

http://nova.astrometry.net

Thanks for the tip, I'll have to give this a try sometime!

i may try it with the remote telescope i use in chile

I seem to remember a piece of a poem about the seven sisters from my childhood, but a search has been futile so far.
This little scrap is what popped up when I saw your beautiful photograph: “…Pleiades westering and I go home alone.” And Orion in there somewhere. Anyone?

It might have been inspired by Sappho’s poem:

Tonight I’ve watched

the moon and then
the Pleiades
go down

The night is now
half gone; youth
goes; I am

in bed alone


which led me down this delightful rabbit hole
https://clivethompson.medium.com/astronomers-crack-the-secret-of-this-gorgeous-poem-by-sappho-bd23cffef48b
🕊thatcrowwoman