Messier 45 (M45), also known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, is a bright open star cluster located in the constellation Taurus, the Bull.
The Pleiades cluster has an apparent magnitude of 1.6 and lies at an
average distance of 444 light years from Earth. The cluster is also
known as Melotte 22. It does not have an NGC designation.
Messier 45 contains a number of hot, blue, extremely luminous B-type
stars and is one of the nearest star clusters to Earth. It is the
easiest object of its kind to see without binoculars. M45 has a core
radius of 8 light years and its tidal radius extends to about 43 light
years. The cluster is home to more than 1,000 confirmed members, but
only a handful of these stars are visible to the naked eye. The total
mass of M45 is estimated at about 800 solar masses.
The names of the nine brightest stars in M45 are taken from Greek
mythology and they represent the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters – Sterope,
Electra, Merope, Maia, Celaeno, Taygeta, and Alcyone – and their
parents, Pleione and Atlas.
This Image is the result of 150 minutes worth of 10 minute frames, lights and dark's.
127mm ES ED-APO, Canon T6i, SSAG, PHD2. Mount was an Orion HDX110.
Processed in PixInsight and Cs6.
Wednesday, March 6, 2019
Saturday, July 7, 2018
I'm Back!
Getting tired of Social Media, so I am firing up my blog. Trying to remember/figure out how it's done. Here are a couple of eclipse shots, one solar and one lunar.
Friday, June 15, 2018
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
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