Cheering Taurus on to victory are the Seven Sisters known as the Pleiades. For years, the Great Hunter pursued the seven beautiful daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione with ill intent, until Zeus turned them into a cluster of seven stars to save them from Orion's intentions. To this day, Orion still continues his hot but hopeless pursuit, rising after the Pleiades in the eastern skies and following them across the heavens. Despite the determination of Orion and Taurus, each maintains a respectable and safe distance from the other while this age old battle quietly moves through the celestial winter sky. But for me, that has always been part of the beauty and the mystery of those wonderful twinkling marvels that are sprinkled across the heavens.
Winter is one of the best times to observe the stars as the sky is usually much clearer.
Plus many of the winter constellations are the easiest to identify. Orion dominates the southeastern winter sky. The Great Hunter is probably the best-known constellation and for most people, the easiest to pick out. No other constellation looks so like its name or contains so many bright stars. Orion is easily identified by the three equally bright, evenly spaced white stars in a row that form his belt.