The Fixed Stars

Chamukuy

Theta Tauri, Theta-1 and Theta-2 Tauri

A Yucatec Maya name for a small bird, applied to the star in modern times. It stands at about 8° Gemini (tropical).

A wide pair in the face of the Bull, among the rainy Hyades.

Theta Tauri is a naked-eye double set in the V of the Hyades, the cluster of stars strung across the Bull's face near Aldebaran. Its name Chamukuy is a modern one drawn from Yucatec Maya, not from the Western fixed-star tradition, and the star shares in whatever the ancients read into the Hyades as a group rather than carrying a delineation of its own. Little individual traditional lore attaches to this star.

A Hyades member; the old rainy and tearful character belongs to the cluster, not to this star alone.