APOD: Pic du Pleiades (2023 Dec 09)

[APOD Robot]

Pic du Pleiades

Explanation: Near dawn on November 19 the Pleiades stood in still dark skies over the French Pyrenees. But just before sunrise a serendipitous moment was captured in this single 3 second exposure; a bright meteor streak appeared to pierce the heart of the galactic star cluster. From the camera's perspective, star cluster and meteor were poised directly above the mountain top observatory on the Pic du Midi de Bigorre. And though astronomers might consider the Pleiades to be relatively close by, the grain of dust vaporizing as it plowed through planet Earth's upper atmosphere actually missed the cluster's tight grouping of young stars by about 400 light-years. While recording a night sky timelapse series, the camera and telephoto lens were fixed to a tripod on the Tour-de-France-cycled slopes of the Col du Tourmalet about 5 kilometers from the Pic du Midi.

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[Ann]

That's a lovely image! The meteor is really grazing Pleione and really piercing Merope! (Well, the meteor is actually missing the stars by some 400 light-years, but who cares, right?)

A direct hit! Image Credit & Copyright: Jean-Francois Graffand

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Note the sweet contrast between the blue stars and the green meteor!

And here are the names of the sisters of the Pleiades and their parents:

The names of the sisters and their parents. Credit: John Lanoue

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Back to the APOD. I guess you can call the meteor passing in front of the Pleiades a fleeting conjunction, can't you? Now you see it, now you don't! Blink and you'll miss it!

Ann

[Sa Ji Tario]

A sky studded with stars like in the past in my places, before the pollution stops.-
The aerolite that crossed the scene in a second disappeared, but not before eclipsing Pleyone, brushing against Alcyone and finally eclipsing Merope of the group known by the proper names of the Pleiades and then turning into smoke and dust that, over time, disappeared. turned into smoke and dust. It will become a condensation nucleus in the lower layers and will fall as rain to wet the crops.-
If I remember correctly, it was at this “noon peak” that the device was used for the first time to hide the Sun and simulate an eclipse and thus be able to observe the solar corona and do other studies.-