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Taurus is the constellation and the Pleiades are the stars. Kind of a trick
question since it was brought up before. ;-)

 The Pleiades Star Cluster
http://www.geocities.com/assabfn/spacetides/historicalnotes.htm
The Pleiades Star Cluster is a remarkable naked-eye star clusters to
observe.  It is also known as M45 and the Seven Sisters, to be found in the
constellation of Taurus.  Revered as a famous deep sky object, it captured
the minds of ancient people for many centuries.  Some sources note the
Pleiades to be among the first stars mentioned in astronomical literature,
appearing in Chinese scripts of 2 357 B.C.
The Pleiades features in many ancient myths.  In Indian legend the stars
represented a tower and seven Indian maidens who were pursued by bears. The
maidens were placed in the heavens after the tower was raised to protect
them from the danger.  The cluster was also used by ancients as an
eye-test. The more stars you could discern, the better your eye-sight was
considered to be. Even Roman soldiers went through this test.
According to Greek Mythology, the Pleiades was the seven daughters of Atlas
and the nymph Pleione. Their names are: Maia, Merope, Electra, Celaeno,
Taygete, Sterope and Alcyone.  We are able to see six of these named stars.
The seventh daughter, Electra, were “lost” because she married a mortal
man. One legend says that Orion the Hunter chased the sisters for many
years. Zeus then saved the sisters from their distress by placing them in
the sky.


Meanwhile the VLA is-
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/vla/html/VLAintro.shtml
The Very Large Array (VLA) is one of the world's premier astronomical radio
observatories. The VLA consists of 27 antennas arranged in a huge Y pattern
up to 36km (22 miles) across -- roughly one and a half times the size of
Washington, DC.
Each antenna is 25 meters (81 feet) in diameter; they are combined
electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 36km (22 miles) across,
with the sensitivity of a dish 130 meters (422 feet) in diameter.
Who runs it?
The VLA is operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO),
which is a facility of the National Science Foundation (NSF), operated
under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI).
Can I go see it?
The VLA is open to the public; follow this link for directions and other
information. http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/tourist/visit.vla.html

 VLA Home Page
http://www.aoc.nrao.edu/vla/html/VLAhome.shtml

That ends our astronomy lesson for the day. Too bad you can't get any milk
from the Milky Way!!

Barb - on the continental divide
http://globalcircle.net


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 10/19/2002 at 8:52 PM Marie Kamphefner wrote:

>Regards to the list:
>
>OK, what is the constellation?  And what is VLA?
>
>Marie in Missouri
>
><snip>
>-what constellation and/ or stars did the Romans use as an eyesight
>test in order to pass muster??
>Living out here in dark sky country near the VLA (remember the movie
>Contact?), where it's even against the law to have bright sodium lights.
>Harvard is just finishing building another observatory out here for many
>millions......
>