Fuji Heavy Industries which is made up of six separate companies, one
of which is Subaru. The badge represents an open star cluster in the
constellation of Taurus called the Pleiades (M45), the Japanese
translation for which is Subaru. The Pleiades is sometimes known as
the Seven Sisters due to the number of stars which can on average be
seen by the unaided naked eye, but it is actually made up of many
hundreds of stars. Amongst astronomers it is used as a measure of
seeing conditions and a test of eyesight on how many stars in the
cluster can actually be seen unaided, and 11 is near the upper limit
(although the record is 19) and many more can be seen with binoculars.
The brightest star in the cluster is Eta-Tauri, also known as Alcyone.
Why the Seven Sisters is represented by six stars on the Subaru emblem
is unknown. Perhaps it is generally smoggy in Japan?
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Email from the Impreza WWW Owners Club (IWOC)
Homepage http://homepages.enterprise.net/srb/alcyone.html
Chat http://venus.beseen.com/chat/rooms/d/3664
All information is unofficial and does not necessarily
reflect the opinion of Steve Breen!
"SUBARU" is a Japanese word meaning "unite."
It is also a term identifying the Pleiades star
cluster in the constellation Taurus that includes six
stars visible to the average eye. According to
Greek mythology, Atlas' daughters turned into this
group of stars.
In 1953, five Japanese companies merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.
The new corporation adopted the "Subaru" cluster of stars as its official logo
for
its line of automobiles. Today, Fuji Heavy Industries is a global transportation
conglomerate.
John Wainwright
ASE Master Tech
Tater's Subaru XT6 Wonderland... http://members.xoom.com/taterhead/
If you go out at night and look almost due east around 9:00 PM
about 30 degrees above the horizon. You will see a patch of stars
covering an area almost 4 times that of the full moon. When
viewed with binoculars or a small telescope the blue white color,
of the stars, should become quite evident (about 200 in all).
With a larger telescope the stars will seem to be shrouded in a
blue fog. This is the left over nebulosity of star formation as
the Pleiades are some of the youngest stars that we can see with
the unaided eye.
For information and pictures please go here:
http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m045.html