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Robert Chozick | all galleries >> Galleries >> Deep Sky Images > Pleiades - Seven Sisters - M45 OSC
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12-Nov-2024

Pleiades - Seven Sisters - M45 OSC

Paducah Skies Observatory

The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (Messier 45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The celestial entity has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.

The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing. Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades was probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood. (Wikipedia)

Paducah Skies Observatory is a private observatory SW of Paducah, TX. It sits on 45 acres of native Texas grasslands and mesquite trees. The skies are 21.99 on the light pollution scale (almost Bortle 1).

AG Optical 10 inch iDK
ZWO ASI6200MC Pro CMOS One Shot Color Camera
Baader Vario Finder mounted as Guidescope
ZWO ASI220MM Guide Camara
Astro Physics 1200 GTO mount

55 exp 4 min each OSC (100 gain/30 offset)

Guided with PHD-2
Captured with The Sky X
Pre-processed and Stacked in Nebulosity
Post Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop full exif


other sizes: small medium large original auto