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Messier 45 (M45) commonly called The Pleiades or Seven Sisters, is an open cluster in
Taurus. It is nearer to Earth than many other clusters - only 400 light years away. It is a
bright cluster of magnitude 1.6 and so is easily visible to the naked eye in the Nortern
Winter's dark sky as a small dipper asterism. The cluster is dominated by young, hot, blue
stars - on the order of 100 million years old. These young stars are surrounded by dust
from an interstellar cloud which produces the reflection nebulosity that is visible in the
image.
Imaging data:
Date: Dec 2009
Location: New Ringgold PA
Optics: Takahashi FSQ 106ED at f/5
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera/Filters: Apogee Alta U8300 FLI CFW-2-7 FLI Filters
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider in Orion ST-80
Exposure: R:22x5 min G:22x4 min B:22x6.6 min for a total of 5.7 hours
Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing using Photoshop.
Imaging data:
Date: Dec 2009
Location: New Ringgold PA
Optics: Takahashi FSQ 106ED at f/5
Mount: Paramount ME
Camera/Filters: Apogee Alta U8300 FLI CFW-2-7 FLI Filters
Guiding: Orion Starshoot Autoguider in Orion ST-80
Exposure: R:22x5 min G:22x4 min B:22x6.6 min for a total of 5.7 hours
Processing: Image acquisition using CCD Autopilot. Initial processing was done using Maxim DL with subsequent processing using Photoshop.
Blue Mountain Vista Observatory New Ringgold PA
The Pleiades M45