M45 – The Wisps of the Pleiades

M45

Telescope: 16″ f3.75 Dream Scope
Camera: FLI ML16803
Mount: ASA DDM85
Exposure: 5 hours (25x300s L + 3x11x300s RGB)
Date: October 2017
Location: Southern Alps, France

M45 is one of the most famous night sky asterisms and is known as the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters and Subaru. M45 is an open cluster in the constellation Taurus and lies at an estimated distance of 440 light years. The cluster is composed of extremely hot and luminous young blue stars. The faint reflection nebula visible around the brightest stars is an unrelated dust cloud that the cluster is currently passing through.

And here is a detail of the wispy veil surrounding the stars

 

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