Deep sky · Open cluster in Taurus · C 41
Open cluster
Hyades
The Hyades, the bull’s face: the nearest open cluster to Earth, and the V around the red eye of Aldebaran.
- Type
- Open cluster
- Designations
- C 41
- Constellation
- Taurus
- Apparent magnitude
- 0.5
- Apparent size
- 5.5°
- Position (J2000)
- RA 4h 27m · Dec +15° 52′
Myth
The Hyades were half-sisters of the Pleiades, the rain nymphs. They wept for their brother Hyas, and their rising was said to bring rain.
Science
Its distance, measured precisely, became the first rung of the ladder astronomers use to measure the universe.