Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  16 Tau  ·  17 Tau  ·  19 q Tau  ·  20 Tau  ·  21 Tau  ·  22 Tau  ·  23 Tau  ·  24 Tau  ·  25 eta Tau  ·  26 Tau  ·  27 Tau  ·  28 Tau  ·  Alcyone  ·  Asterope  ·  Atlas  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  Celaeno  ·  Electra  ·  IC 349  ·  M 45  ·  Maia  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  Pleione  ·  Sterope II  ·  Taygeta  ·  The star Atlas (27Tau)  ·  And 7 more.
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M45  The Pleiades, Patrick Graham
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M45 The Pleiades

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M45  The Pleiades, Patrick Graham
Powered byPixInsight

M45 The Pleiades

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Description

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, is an open star cluster located in the constellation of Taurus. This grouping of middle aged stars is the nearest Messier object to Earth; a mere 445 light years distant, easily visible to the naked eye and often mistaken for the Little Dipper. This one was my first attempt at LRGB imaging and processing. I'm happy with the detail however, more nebulosity could have been picked up had I had taken longer exposures. My polar alignment wasn't the best so I could only get 60 sec exposures without significant trailing. I was surprised at the "blue halo" around the image as it did not appear in the masters. I've been told the the effect is actually part of the nebula so I left it in rather than trying to remove it with the DBE tool in PI. If you drive a Subaru, look at the logo as "Subaru" is the Japanese name for this beautiful cluster.

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M45  The Pleiades, Patrick Graham