M45 - The Pleiades
Commonly called the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, M45 is known as an open star cluster. It contains over a thousand stars that are loosely bound by gravity, but it is visually dominated by a handful of its brightest members.
These hot blue luminous stars formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.
The Pleiades cluster has been observed since ancient times, so it has no known discoverer. However, Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist best known for discovering the largest moons of Jupiter and championing a heliocentric model of the solar system, was the first to observe the Pleiades through a telescope. M45 is located an average distance of 445 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. It has an apparent magnitude of 1.6 and can be seen with the naked eye. The cluster is best observed during January.
Imaging telescope: Takahashi FSQ130ED
Imaging camera: ASI 2600mm
Mount: JTW Trident P75
Guiding telescope: Takahashi FS60CB
Guiding camera: QHY 5 II
Focal Extender / Reducer: None
Software: Sequence Generator Pro SGP (for capture) PHD 2 (guiding), Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight.
Filters: Astrodon Luminance, Red, Green & Blue
Accessories: Robofocus Focuser controlled by Lunatico Armadillo, ATIK EFW3, RB Focus Gaius, RB Focus Excalibur.
Dates: 13th. Dec 2023
Frames:
Astrodon L 40 x 1'
Astrodon R 40 x 1'
Astrodon G 40 x 1'
Astrodon B 40 x 1'
Total integration = 2 Hours 40 Minutes.
Center (RA, Dec): (56.639, 24.164)
Center (RA, hms): 03h 46m 33.335s
Center (Dec, dms): +24° 09' 51.709"
Size: 1.86 x 1.2 deg
Radius: 1.105 deg
Pixel scale: 1.2 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 359.5 degrees E of N
These hot blue luminous stars formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing. This dust cloud is estimated to be moving at a speed of approximately 18 km/s relative to the stars in the cluster.
The Pleiades cluster has been observed since ancient times, so it has no known discoverer. However, Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist best known for discovering the largest moons of Jupiter and championing a heliocentric model of the solar system, was the first to observe the Pleiades through a telescope. M45 is located an average distance of 445 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. It has an apparent magnitude of 1.6 and can be seen with the naked eye. The cluster is best observed during January.
Imaging telescope: Takahashi FSQ130ED
Imaging camera: ASI 2600mm
Mount: JTW Trident P75
Guiding telescope: Takahashi FS60CB
Guiding camera: QHY 5 II
Focal Extender / Reducer: None
Software: Sequence Generator Pro SGP (for capture) PHD 2 (guiding), Astro Pixel Processor, PixInsight.
Filters: Astrodon Luminance, Red, Green & Blue
Accessories: Robofocus Focuser controlled by Lunatico Armadillo, ATIK EFW3, RB Focus Gaius, RB Focus Excalibur.
Dates: 13th. Dec 2023
Frames:
Astrodon L 40 x 1'
Astrodon R 40 x 1'
Astrodon G 40 x 1'
Astrodon B 40 x 1'
Total integration = 2 Hours 40 Minutes.
Center (RA, Dec): (56.639, 24.164)
Center (RA, hms): 03h 46m 33.335s
Center (Dec, dms): +24° 09' 51.709"
Size: 1.86 x 1.2 deg
Radius: 1.105 deg
Pixel scale: 1.2 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 359.5 degrees E of N
Sky Map & Finding Chart
Annotated Image
