<![CDATA[ScienceDownEast - ScienceDownEast Astrophotography - M45 The Pleiades (Latest images)]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:29:42 -0300 Tue, 14 Apr 2026 15:29:42 -0300 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Zenphoto RSS Generator <![CDATA[M45 The Pleiades (M45 The Pleiades)]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Clusters/M45-The-Pleiades&image=masterLight_BIN-1_1080x1920_EXPOSURE-10.00s_FILTER-IRCUT_RGB_drizzle_2x_a.jpg M45 The PleiadesClick on the image to view it at full resolution, then click again for actual size.

The M45 The Pleiades also known as Seven Sisters and Messier 45 (M45), is an asterism of an open star cluster containing young B-type stars in the northwest of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth, being the most obvious star cluster to the naked eye in the night sky. It contains the reflection nebulae NGC 1432, an HII region, and NGC 1435, known as the Merope Nebula. Around 2330 BC the Pleiades marked the vernal point. Due to the brightness of its stars, the Pleiades is viewable from most areas on Earth, even in locations with significant light pollution. 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 leftover 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. [from Wikipedia]

Total image time was 3 hours and 3 minutes.

Moon PhaseJust past Full Moon
Exposure180 x 10 sec
Gain200
CameraZWO SeeStar S30 [1920 x 1080] IMX662
OpticsZWO SeeStar S30 alt/az mode [Focal length 150, Aperture 30 mm, f/5]
GuidingNA
ControllerNA
FilterIR Cut
LocationLower Sackville, Nova Scotia.
Date2025-12-06
ProcessingProcessed in PixInsight.
PixInsight Processing
WeightedBatchPreprocessing Script [ 2x drizzle ]
BlurXTerminator
GraXpert
NoiseXTerminator
StarXTerminator
Generalized Hyperbolic Stretch on both the stars and starless images
HDRMultiScaleTransform on the Starless image
PixelMath to recombine the images
CurveTransformation


Date: December 07, 2025 ]]> https://sciencedowneast.com/zenphoto/index.php?album=Clusters/M45-The-Pleiades&image=masterLight_BIN-1_1080x1920_EXPOSURE-10.00s_FILTER-IRCUT_RGB_drizzle_2x_a.jpg Sun, 07 Dec 2025 20:19:06 -0400