Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Taurus (Tau)  ·  Contains:  19 Tau)  ·  25 Tau)  ·  Barnard's Merope Nebula  ·  IC 349  ·  Maia Nebula  ·  Merope Nebula  ·  NGC 1432  ·  NGC 1435  ·  Sterope I (21 Tau)  ·  The star 18 Tau  ·  The star Alcyone (η Tau  ·  The star Asterope  ·  The star Atlas (27 Tau)  ·  The star Celaeno (16 Tau)  ·  The star Electra (17 Tau)  ·  The star Merope (23 Tau)  ·  The star Pleione (28 Tau)  ·  The star Sterope II (22 Tau)  ·  The star Taygeta (q Tau
M45 - Pleiades, Bob Stewart
M45 - Pleiades
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M45 - Pleiades

M45 - Pleiades, Bob Stewart
M45 - Pleiades
Powered byPixInsight

M45 - Pleiades

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Along with the Andromeda Galaxy, the Pleiades is another large object that has been on my astrophotography bucket list since the mid-80’s. It is a beautiful open star cluster in the constellation Taurus that is currently passing through an interstellar dust cloud. The light from these young, blue stars is reflecting off the dust cloud creating the blue reflection nebula NGC 1342. The Pleiades is one of the closest star clusters to the Earth at just 444 light-years away. These bright, hot, blue stars were all formed at around the same time from the same cloud of material with the last 100 million years. Ever since, they have been moving apart and will eventually no longer be gravitationally bound to each other in another 250 million years or so.
The stars of the Pleiades are easily seen with the naked eye, even under moderate light pollution. Because of their easy naked eye visibility, the Pleiades have been observed and noted since ancient times. Many different cultures around the world used the Pleiades as an important element of their calendar systems. The name “Pleiades” itself is its Greek name. Other cultures, of course, have their own names for the star cluster. In Japanese the cluster’s name is “Subaru”. That’s where the car company got its name, and the car logo is a stylized image of 6 of the cluster’s stars.

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M45 - Pleiades, Bob Stewart