The Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names by different cultures, is an
asterism and an
open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot
B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation
Taurus. At a distance of about 444
light years, it is among the nearest
star clusters to
Earth. It is the nearest
Messier object to Earth, and is the most obvious cluster to the
naked eye in the
night sky. It is also observed to house the reflection nebula
NGC 1432, an
HII region.The cluster is dominated by
hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.
Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the
interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.The Pleides is a beginner astrophotography target and many take pictures in super widefield with mobile phones and other DSLR cameras. It is relatively easy to photograph with decent results. I wanted to revisit the beginner target to see how I have progressed in the last few years.Image Capture:This image was captured in my backyard in Boerne Texas over three nights in December 2023 under Bortle 5 skies using a small APO refractor telescope with four Petzval elements.- 120x600s (20.0 hours) of RGB exposure using a broadband multi-bandpass filter for light pollution (Optolong L-Pro)- Images were pre-processed (stacked) in Deep Sky Stacker and post-processed with PixInsight.Gear- Redcat 51- ZWO AM5- ZWO Asi2600MC Pro- Optolong L-Pro
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