Date posted: 8/20/2025
Date Taken: 11/28/2013
Scope: William Optics Megrez 90 with Televue 0.8x FR/FF, f/5.5, 496mm
Camera: QSI 583wsg with Astrodon Tru-Balance E-Series Gen2 filters
Temp: -15C
Mount: Losmandy G-11 Gemini
Guiding: Lodestar, off-axis
Exposure: LRGB 55:45:45:50 All subs 5 minutes, unbinned.

Calibrated and Stacked with CCDStack 2; Final processing with CS4

Messier 45, known as the Pleiades or Seven Sisters, is one of the closest star clusters to us, at about 444 light years. It is relatively young, having formed within the last 100 million years. The bluish reflection nebula was once believed to be leftover material from the cluster's formation, but it is now considered to be an unrelated cloud of dust through which the cluster is currently passing.

The cluster is easily visible to the naked eye, and many people confuse it with the Little Dipper. Most people can only detect 6 stars, and many cultures have tales, handed down through generations, explaining the absence of the seventh sister.

This is a re-process of an image originally taken in in 2013.