To the classical Greeks, Taurus was a lusty Zeus in disguise. Zeus fell in love with the only daughter of the king of Phoenicia. In the form of a beautiful white bull, Zeus caught Europa’s attention while she played with her friends along the seashore. The girls fed and stroked the bull, adorned it with wreaths of flowers, even rode on the gentle bull’s back. When it came to Europa’s turn, the bull sprang to its feet and leapt into the sea. Europa held desperately to the bull’s horns, struggling to keep from drowning as the bull swam across the Mediterranean Sea to the island of Crete. There, Zeus and Europa had three sons, one of whom later ruled the island as King Minos. 

The Pleiades is the unmistakable, tiny dipper-shaped asterism forming the Bull’s shoulder.  In Greek mythology, Orion, the Hunter, wished to make Merope of the Pleiades his wife. Zeus, again in the form of a Bull, stands between the two, protecting Merope from Orion’s advances. Forming the face of the Bull is a distinctively V-shaped cluster, the Hyades. Also fathered by Titan, they are the mythological half-sisters of the Pleiades. Marking the Bull’s fiery eye is Aldebaran, Arabic for “the Follower,” named for its position east of the Pleiades, following them forever across the night sky. 

Since ancient times, the boundaries of Taurus have held many surprises and discoveries. When in January 1610, Galileo observed Jupiter between the horns of Taurus, he was the first to discovered a miniature solar system of new moons—in fact, one of these Galilean moons is named for Zeus’s love interest, Europa. Moreover, Taurus was the constellation where William Herschel discovered Uranus in 1781. Two decades later, Giuseppe Piazza discovered the asteroid 1 Ceres on the first day of 1801, again in Taurus.

In 1054 A.D., a spectacular new star bright enough to be visible in daylight, appeared near the crescent Moon, Nearly a thousand years later, the remnants of this supernova stellar explosion were rediscovered in Taurus as a “candle flame” of nebulosity. Eventually, this object became the first in Charles Messier’s famous 18th-century list of comet masqueraders. Since then, the Crab Nebula, its powerhouse neutron star and pulsar radio source have been an objects of intense astrophysical research.

The constellation Taurus we see today is well placed for viewing on chilly winter nights. Rising earlier each evenings, Taurus will be crossed by Mars as it slips from Aries eastward between the Pleiades and Hyades through February and March. Receding from last month’s close opposition, how will then a distant Mars compare with the orange Follower, Al Dabaran?

Inspired by the Delmarva Star Gazers constellation of the month for December, the cover story of the 2005 Astronomical Calendar, and a springtime visit to the Palace of Knossos on Crete. Memorable encounters with Taurus by Fred Schaaf and Greg Bryant are found in the January 2006 Sky and Telescope. Moondark is written by Doug Miller, published at the Moondark web site, and printed in the Delmarva Star Gazers' Star Gazer News. This document was last revised on 27 November  2005. Text and images copyright © 2005 by Douglas C. Miller, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission.