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
The Charioteer The Charioteer The Charioteer is a 1953 war novel by Mary Renault. It was first published in the United States in 1959. "The Charioteer" is significant because it features a prominent gay theme at an early date and quickly became a bestseller within the gay community. This romance novel is set in the period of World War II at a military hospital during nightly bomb raids and blackouts. The story's protagonist, Laurie 'Spud' Odell, is a young soldier wounded at Dunkirk (Renault worked as a nurse during the war), who must decide if his affections lie with a conscientious objector