February 28, 2016
I had been waiting for skies to clear to image the Pleiades (Seven Sisters). Beautiful!
The Pleiades (aka Seven Sisters, M45) is an open star cluster containing hot B-type stars. (giant and super giant very luminous and blue.) Dust around the stars causes the reflection nebulosity. It is one of the closest star clusters to Earth and can be seen with the naked eye. The Pleiades is located near the constellation Orion. (Draw a line through the sword of Orion to the right. Follow to a V-shape pattern of stars with one bright star (Aldebaran.) That’s the face of Taurus The Bull. A little past Aldebaran you will find The Pleiades. As Orion sinks low in the Western Sky in springtime, so does The Pleiades but it is still visible into the month of April.
The Greek myth: The Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas. Several of the male Olympian gods had affairs with the seven heavenly sisters. After Atlas was forced to carry the heavens on his shoulders, Orion began to pursue all of the Pleiades, and Zeus transformed them first into doves, and then into stars. The constellation of Orion is said to still pursue them across the night sky.
* This picture was produced using six three minute exposures at ISO1600. (five “Darks” were used.) Processed using Nebulosity.
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