Introduction to starry night lab worksheet
Pleiades information
1)
What is the distance of the pleiades open cluster from earth in light years?
430ly
2)
What is the diameter of the pleiades open cluster in light years?
15.1
3)
Without using any measurement tools look at the image of the Pleiades cluster on your
screen, in particular look at the 3 stars Merope, Alcyone and Maia. Based on this two
dimensional view of the stars, which star (Alcyone or Maia)
appears closer to the star
Merope? (answer is complete sentences)
Alcyone appears to be much closer to Merope.
Return to the instructions document to set up the program before attempting to answer
the following questions.
Pleiades Measurements
Fill in the table of star distances from the star Merope.
Star name
Distance from Merope (ly)
Taygeta
29.4
Celaeno
4.45
Electra
24.7
Maia
4.26
Asterope
9.17
Alcyone
23.1
Now look at the distances from the table you completed. Which star (Alcyone or Maia)
is closer
to Merope and by how many light years? (answer in complete sentences)
In reality Maia is much closer to Merope, more than 5 times closer.
Explain why the distance measured is so different from how the stars appear in the image.
(Think about what the measurement tool is actually measuring compared to what you can see
looking at the screen.) (answer in complete sentences)
The measurements show the reality with depth and 3 dimensions, while we can only see it on a
screen in 2 dimensions. We have no way of knowing how “deep” or far the stars are.
