File:M45- Pleiades (star cluster) (NGC1432).jpg

The Pleiades (star cluster) (NGC1432): One of the best known, and most photographed of all open star clusters, the Pleiades is often called the Seven Sisters and is often wrongly identified as the “little dipper” by beginners. This very near cluster is estimated at 115 million years old, is located only 440 light years away and contains over 3000 young stars. It also contains some very faint blue reflection nebulas, which show up only in long photographic exposures. As the cluster passes through a large dust cloud in the Milky Way, the reflected light of the hot blue stars of the cluster illuminates the dust and gas. The cloud and the stars are not connected, and both are moving at different speeds.

This is a single 40 minute exposure with the Meade LXD75 8” Schmidt Newtonian telescope. The image was captured at prime focus with an Olympus OM-1 SLR and Fujichrome Provia 400F slide film. The telescope was manually guided during tracking with an Orion 910mm f/l guidescope. (c)2005 Peter Kennett. See Astrophotography to learn more about this style of photography.

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