Photo of the Pleiades courtesy of NASA

The public is invited to view the Pleiades, a group of stars known for their beauty, through Missouri University of Science and Technology’s 16-inch telescope on Monday, Nov. 9.

The Missouri S&T Observatory will open its doors at 7 p.m. that night for the viewing. The sky must be clear for observing and the session length will vary.

Viewings at the observatory are free of charge and no reservations are required. Each observation session is open-ended. Children are welcome to attend but must be accompanied by an adult. All visitors must be able to ascend a short set of stairs in order to view the object through the telescope.

The Pleiades, also called the Seven Sisters, is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the most obvious to the naked eye. The cluster is made up of hot blue, luminous stars which have formed in the past 100 million years.

The observatory will host more viewings of celestial bodies next semester. There will be a viewing of the Great Orion Nebula on Feb. 10, Jupiter’s moons on March 14 and the Beehive Cluster on April 11. All viewings are subject to weather conditions.

Built in 1973, the Missouri S&T Observatory is located at 1550 N. Bishop Ave. (Highway 63 North), adjacent to the university’s Stonehenge replica, north of McNutt Hall and west of St. Patrick’s Lane.

For more information, or to have your email address added to an event notification mailing list for future updates and weather cancellation notices, contact Ken Goss by email at krgvx4@mst.edu.