Taurus (constellation) astronomers. Taurus hosts two of the nearest open clusters to Earth, the Pleiades and the Hyades, both of which are visible to the naked eye. At first magnitude, the red giant Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation. In the northwest part of Taurus is the supernova remnant Messier 1, more commonly known as the Crab Nebula. One of the closest regions of active star formation, the Taurus-Auriga complex, crosses into the northern part of the constellation. The variable star T Tauri is the prototype of a class of pre-main-sequence stars. Taurus is a big and prominent constellation in
Capella the charioteer is carrying. In Bayer's 1603 work "Uranometria", Capella marks the charioteer's back. The three "Haedi" had been identified as a separate constellation by Pliny the Elder and Manilius, and were called "Capra", "Caper", or "Hircus", all of which relate to its status as the "goat star". Ptolemy merged the Charioteer and the Goats in the 2nd century Almagest. In Greek mythology, the star represented the goat Amalthea that suckled Zeus. It was this goat whose horn, after accidentally being broken off by Zeus, was transformed into the Cornucopia, or "horn of plenty", which would be filled with whatever