The Pleiades (M45), also called the Seven Sisters, is a bright open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, easily visible to the naked eye and known since antiquity.
Click the image to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · hover to see it annotated · open full resolutionAnnotated image · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolutionSky location chart · click to zoom in (4 steps), then again for full view · open full resolution
The Pleiades (M45), also called the Seven Sisters, is a bright open star cluster in the constellation Taurus, easily visible to the naked eye and known since antiquity. Modern Gaia-based parallax measurements place it at a distance of about 444 light-years, and its stars are young, roughly 100 million years old. The cluster's brightest members are hot, blue B-type stars that happen to be passing through an unrelated cloud of interstellar dust, whose light they scatter to produce the delicate blue reflection nebulosity draped around the stars in long-exposure images. Because its stars are so bright, imaging the Pleiades well requires care to manage glare and diffraction spikes while still bringing out the faint, wispy blue nebulosity surrounding them.
[Source: Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleiades]
Annotated Image
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Sky Location
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Image Details
| Moon Phase: | First Quarter |
|---|---|
| Camera: | ToupTek ATR2600C |
| Optics: | Skywatcher Esprit 120ED, 840 mm focal length, f/7 (120 mm aperture, APO triplet) |
| Date: | 2024-12-07 |
| Number of images: | 29 |
| Exposure per image: | 10 min (600 s) |
| Total imaging time: | 4 h 50 min |
PixInsight Processing
- GraXpert (gradient removal)
- Spectrophotometric Color Calibration
- PixelMath
- Rotation
