Location / Date

Zellerndorf, Jan 2012

Telescope / Mount / Guiding

5" f5 Skywatcher Newtonian, Baader MPCC, Skywatcher NEQ6, Lacerta OAG + Mgen

Camera / Exposure

Canon EOS 1100Da, 46 x 10min + 4 x 15min ISO 200 (total 8h 40min)

Processing

Theli, Fitswork, Photoshop

Notes

The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier object 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 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, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing.