The Astrology of Space - Matrix Software

The Astrology of Space
Moving Clusters
Certain open clusters, for which the individual stars
have a pronounced motion toward a convergent point,
are known as Moving Clusters. The Hyades is one of
the earliest known and the nearest of these clusters.
Except for small peculiar motions, all stars that are
members of a moving cluster move in space along
more or less parallel paths, much like meteors in a
meteor stream. The individual proper motions of these
stars seem to converge toward or diverge from a
common point in the sky in the same way that
meteors in showers appear to diverge from their
radiants (see Meteors). The point of divergence
marks the direction in space toward which the Sun is
moving with respect to the cluster. The point of
convergence of the proper motions (opposite the point
of divergence on the celestial sphere) marks the
direction toward which the cluster is moving with
respect to the Sun.
The Ursa Major cluster is of particular interest to us
since it occupies the same volume of space as our
Sun. In fact, it is moving through our space, although
the Sun is not a member of this cluster. The Ursa
Major cluster is composed of two subgroups which
consist of a moderately compact cluster of 14 stars
with the same proper motion and an extended stream
of stars which has approximately the same motion.
The nucleus of this cluster is located about 23
parsecs from the Sun and occupies (roughly)
ellipsoidal region 4x6x10 parsecs in diameter. The
shortest diameter is perpendicular to the galactic
plane, while the longest is in the direction of the
motion of the cluster. The motion of the local centroid
is 29 km/sec.
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