Good Heavens!  The Human Side of Astronomy cover image

Good Heavens! The Human Side of Astronomy

The Beauty of the Pleiades!

Nov 8, 2021
01:04:36

You may have mistaken them for the Little Dipper - a small little bluish-white cluster of stars that look like a cart, a plough, or to some even a question mark. It is the asterism (stars that are not a constellation but a smaller group of stars within a larger constellation) of Taurus the Bull, visible in the early fall mornings and clear wintry nights. 

Poems, stories, songs and myths surround this beauteous gem of the night skies. A Japanese auto manufacturer even features them as their main logo. The nineteenth-century English poet Alfred Lloyd Tennyson penned these famous lines about them: 

Many a night I saw the Pleiades rising thro’ the mellow shade,

Glittering like a swarm of fireflies, tangled in a silver braid.

They have been useful to many cultures for keeping time, knowing directions, and as an aid in knowing when to plant and harvest crops. They are recorded in the Old Testament, and in the ancient Greek poetry of Homer, Hesiod, and Aratus. They are M-45 in the famous catalogue of 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier. 

Just as Jesus intended them to be. 

And, by the way, all of that is just a sampling of how the heavens do indeed declare the glory of God!  So come along with Wayne and Dan as they explore the wonder, stories, and science behind an ancient and wondrous little cluster of stars we call the Pleiades.

To see a great picture of the Pleiades and read more see Wayne's Blog article below:
https://creationanswers.net/answersblog

Podbean enables our podcast to be on Apple Podcasts and other major podcast platforms.  To support Good Heavens! on Podbean as a patron, you can use the Podbean app, or go to https://patron.podbean.com/goodheavens.  This goes to Wayne Spencer. If you would like to give to the ministry of Watchman Fellowship or to Daniel Ray, you can donate at https://www.watchman.org/daniel. Donations to Watchman are tax deductible.

Photo credit:  NASA, ESA, AURA/Caltech, Palomar Observatory

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