Seven Sisters Dancing in the Stars

by Stoneworks Imagery

Title

Seven Sisters Dancing in the Stars

Artist

Stoneworks Imagery

Medium

Digital Art - Digital Art

Description

In astronomy, the Pleiades are considered an open star cluster. In Greek mythology, the Pleiades were the seven daughters of the Greek God Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione. This beautiful star cluster, the Seven Sisters, has always captivated the human imagination and has been the subject of many legends, writings, and works of art. For example, one myth claimed that Orion began to pursue the Pleiades sisters. For their protection and to comfort their father, Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars. In 1885, Elihu Vedder painted the symbolist image of the sisters shown here.

In April 2007, the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope captured the infrared purplish image of the Pleiades in this image. It highlights the 'tangled silver braid' mentioned in a poem by Tennyson. The 'silver braid' is from space dust associated with the cloud through which the star cluster is traveling. The 'parent' stars Atlas and Pleione can be seen at the bottom. The Seven Sister Stars are visible through the cloud of dust.

I was curious to see how the actual space image would superimpose over the painting, so I created a composite image, as shown here by repositioning and sizing the two images to see if the sisters' bodies fit the star pattern. The result is fun to look at and somewhat impressive because the flowing figures of the dancers fit the actual Spitzer's imagery quite nicely. Artist credit Elihu Vedder and Pleiades Star Cluster photo credit NASA.

Uploaded

February 29th, 2020

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