Instrument

Canon EF-S 55-250mm zoom @ 208mm, f/5.6. Aquired at 4.26 arcsec/pixel. Shown at 25.0 and 10.6 arcsec/pixel.

Mount

Losmandy G11 with Gemini L4 v1.0, unguided

Camera

Canon EOS Rebel T5i (no modifications)

Acquisition Data

2/8/2015 & 2/10/2015  Chino Valley, AZ with the Canon EOS Utility

Exposure

Software

• Pixinsight and Photoshop CS6.

• PixInsight processing includes calibration, debayering,  registeration,  cosmeticCorrection, stacking,  gradient repair, and non-linear stretching with HistogramTransformation.

• PhotoShop for the final touch-up. 

• Noiseware 5, a PhotoShop plug-in.

Comment

North is to the right.

M45, the Pleiades cluster, is probably the most famous cluster in the sky. The cluster is easily visible with the naked eye. However, it is best viewed with binoculars or small telescopes.

Although the cluster is also called the Seven Sisters, it actually contains over 3000 stars. Located in the constellation of Taurus, M45 is about 400 light-years away and only 13 light-years across.

Pleiades is dominated by very hot and extremely luminous stars that were formed within the last 100 million years. The stars illuminate the dust in the area, creating the blue reflection nebula. Astronomers once thought the cluster was created from this dust. However, it is now known that the dust is unrelated and is simply a dust cloud in the interstellar medium.