Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  Maia nebula  ·  Merope nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  The star 18Tau  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28Tau)  ·  The star Sterope I (21Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (19Tau)  ·  The star ηTau
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M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland
M45 - Pleiades
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M45 - Pleiades

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland
M45 - Pleiades
Powered byPixInsight

M45 - Pleiades

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Description

I approached this target with some trepidation - containing big stars and fluffy nebula elements (I find soft diffuse nebula challenging and have battled star management for the last few months) - however, it was the next one on the list so I pressed on. I am satisfied with this for my first pass.

Lloyd's excellent IoTD version gave me a lot of visual guidance allowing me to perceive my objectives more clearly however, I have some subtle variations in line with my processing approach.

Hope you like - for now I would struggle to do much more with it that what I have but always open to ideas.

REV B - Converted to SRGB as AdobeRGB was not presenting as intended this version is closer to what I intended and have here being a little more blue with a hint of red around the very fine nebula.

Rev C - Little background and star work to finish (for now!)

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In astronomy, the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier 45 or M45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The celestial entity has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster (hence the alternative name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing. Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades was probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbourhood. - Wikipedia

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Revisions

  • M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland
    Original
  • M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland
    B
  • Final
    M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland
    C

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M45 - Pleiades, Paddy Gilliland