About Hyades
Hyades is an uncommon cluster. It sits in the constellation Tau.
An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Uncommon cluster 33 EP
Hyades
RA 66.7250° · Dec 15.8667° · openngc
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Score breakdown
· 5 badgesUncommon 34 pts → Rare
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon +12
- Has a proper name +8
- Star cluster +7
- Open cluster +3
- On the zodiac +3
Total score 33
1 more point to reach Rare.
Badges
- Star cluster · +7
- Has a proper name · +8
- Open cluster · +3
- On the zodiac · +3
- Bigger on the sky than the full Moon · +12
Trivia
What it actually is
- What it actually is. An open cluster: a few hundred stars born together out of one collapsing cloud, still drifting along in loose formation.
Sense of scale
- Sense of scale. Gravity is not strong enough to hold it. Within a few hundred million years these siblings will be scattered right around the galaxy.
Find it in the sky
- Where to look. You'll find it in the constellation Taurus.
- Northern sky. It rides the northern half of the sky — an easier target the further north you are.
- Best time of year. It stands highest in the middle of the night around November — that's when to go looking.
Its true colour
- Its true colour. Open clusters look blue-white because they are young — their hottest, bluest stars have not had time to die yet.
What's in a name
- Named. Notable enough to have earned a proper name, not just a catalogue number.
Properties
- constellation
- Tau
- dso type
- OCl
- name
- Hyades
- named
- yes
- radial velocity kms
- 40
- redshift
- 0.0001
- size arcmin
- 329
Nearby objects
How to see it
Look for Hyades in the constellation Tau.
Like any astronomical target, Hyades is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Why Hyades is an uncommon cluster
Hyades scores 33 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the uncommon tier. Another 1 point would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 5 science badges — Star cluster, Has a proper name, Open cluster, On the zodiac and Bigger on the sky than the full Moon — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.