The waxing crescent Moon appears near the Pleiades star cluster in the western sky after sunset on Saturday March 25, 2023. These two objects will make excellent targets for sidewalk astronomy with a telescope or binoculars.
The conjunction will be visible for about 3 hours before setting in the west.
The Pleiades is an open star cluster located about 444 light years away, consisting of over 1,000 stars. It is also known as The Seven Sisters, Messier 45 and other names in different cultures.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.
