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M45 The Pleiades

The Pleiades, or seven sisters, (Messier object 45) are an open star cluster containing relatively young hot blue 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 cluster is dominated by hot blue 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 (hence the alternate name Maia Nebula after the star Maia), but is now known to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium that the stars are currently passing through.

 

Picture information:

Meade 80mm ED APO

Canon 40D

Celestron CG5-GT

Autoguided

42x5min eksposures

Deepskystacker

Photoshop CS4 (Curves,Curves,Curves..)

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Uploaded on November 14, 2009
Taken on November 14, 2009