The Pleiades

Image Details:

The Pleiades, also called the 7 Sisters, Subaru, M45, Krittika, or Makalii. This Open Cluster is is visible to both hemispheres and as such has been given names from many cultures through history on both hemispheres of the planet. In one Polynesian story, the Cluster was once a single star until a god named Tane became jealous of its brilliance and broke it into 6 pieces.
This cluster is well-placed in late Autumn and early Winter. M45 collectively contains about 1,000 stars across ~35LY but the brightest dozen or so bathe the surrounding dust with enough light that some of it makes it back to us. Particles in this surrounding nebula cause enough Rayleigh scattering that we see this dust reflecting a brilliant blue color. This cluster has already dispersed the nebula which created it and the brilliance we see here is simply due to Pleaides moving through a particularly dusty area of our galaxy.

Equipment:

• William Optics Star71-II Petzval APO (345mm Focal Length, F/4.9)

• ZWO ASI1600MM-P, ZWO Filters

• Celestron CGEM-II

• Autoguiding: Orion 50mm Guidescope + ZWO ASI224MC

Exposures:

• Luminance: 205 x 60” (Total: 3h 25m)

• Red, Green, Blue: 105, 105, 105 x 120” (Total: 10h 30m)

Misc Details:

• Capture Software: AstrophotographyTool, PHD2 (guiding), Pegasus Powerbox (dew heater control, power management)

• Processing Software: PixInsight

• Taken from: Wichita, KS, Bortle 5

• Capture Dates: 1-3 November, 2019

Annotation