dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (07/14/85)
Taurus the bull now has two starry eyes instead of just one. More on the extra eye of the bull -- after this. July 14 Two Eyes for the Bull Early Sunday morning, in a clear eastern sky, the crescent moon is near the brilliant planet Venus and the star Aldebaran. On Monday, the moon will have moved. It'll be fairly near Venus and Aldebaran -- but lower in the sky than on Sunday -- so you may notice the pattern of stars located behind the planet and star. This star pattern is really a star cluster -- made of stars that were born from a single cloud of gas. The cluster is called the Hyades -- and it's located along the same line of sight as Aldebaran -- and also, for now, the planet Venus. The Hyades appears to the naked eye as a pretty good representation of the letter V. Aldebaran -- a brighter star than any in the Hyades -- marks one tip of the V. Monday morning, when the moon is out of the way, it'll be easy to notice that Venus is now marking the other tip of the V in the Hyades. In the lore of the sky, the V-shaped Hyades represents the face of the bull in the constellation Taurus. Aldebaran, a reddish star, represents the bull's fiery red eye. So on Monday the bull will have two eyes, instead of one. In addition to Aldebaran, Venus will also look like an eye in the face of the bull. You won't have any trouble telling the planet from the star. Aldebaran is a bright star. But Venus -- a nearby planet, covered with highly reflective clouds -- is much brighter! Script by Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1984, 1985 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin