#4: THE FACE OF THE ANGRY BULL – THE HYADES

Due south and located nearly overhead is Taurus, the Bull. The Bull’s face is plainly marked by the fine V-shaped cluster of the Hyades.

Notice the bright red star at the end of the lower arm of the V, which represents the Bull’s fiery eye. That’s Aldebaran, "the follower"; it rises soon after the Pleiades Star Cluster and pursues them across the sky. The Hyades are among the nearest of star clusters, which explains why so many of the separate stars can be seen.

At a distance of 130 light-years, the Hyades are moving in the general direction of the star Betelgeuse in Orion, while receding from us at the rate of 100,000 miles per hour.

Aldebaran, by the way, is not part of the Hyades but merely an "innocent bystander" because just happens to accidentally line up with the cluster to complete this perfect V in the sky. It’s a giant star, about 40 times the diameter of our Sun, 125 times as luminous and 65 light years away. Aldebaran is moving toward the south almost at right angles to the cluster’s motion and twice as fast. Taurus’s V-shaped face is, therefore, going to pieces.

For 25,000 years more it will pass for a V, but after 50,000 years it will be quite out of shape.

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