The lost-sister stories date from 100,000 years ago, when Pleione stood clear of Atlas

Checked 25 October 2026. The geometry holds: Pleione was about 8.6 arcmin from Atlas 100,000 years ago, against 5.0 now. But the visibility argument does not: (1) six stars are seen because six Pleiads are clearly bright and the 7th is less than half as bright as the 6th, the biggest step in the cluster; glare is not needed to explain six. (2) Stars only 0.36 magnitudes fainter than Pleione already sit far from any glare (Celaeno at 10.6 arcmin from Electra, HD 23753 at 40 arcmin) and most people still do not see them, so lifting the glare would add a 7th star only for eyes whose limit falls in a narrow 0.36-magnitude band. (3) Pleione's own brightness has changed by about half a magnitude within a century, more than that band, so the drift over 100,000 years is not the deciding factor. The 100,000-year date therefore does not follow from the astronomy. The published critique we found (Tales of Times Forgotten, 2026) accepts the astronomy and argues only from history, so this point appears to be new. Not yet seen: Schaefer's comments (quoted in Live Science).