Russell Croman Astrophotography  

 

 

The Pleiades


About This Photograph

This familiar winter star cluster (summer for the southern hemisphere) is the Pleiades, also known as Subaru, and the Seven Sisters. It is a group of over 1,000 stars born within the last 100 million years, perhaps from a structure not unlike the present-day Orion Nebula. The wisps of textured dust and gas that now surround the brighter stars are currently not thought to be related to leftovers from the stars' formation, but rather simply clouds that the cluster is now passing through. This region is plentiful in interstellar dust, as can be seen from the fainter tendrils of material around the cluster.

Click here for an annotated photograph.

 

Related Photographs

The Pleiades – Close Up
The Pleiades (M45)
 

Technical Details

Optics:Takahashi FSQ-106 EDX4
Camera:QHY600M
Mount:Paramount MX+
Filters:Chroma RGB
Dates/Times:9-24 October 2020
Location:RC-Astro North Observatory at New Mexico Skies
Exposure Details:8.25 hours total, RGB = 3.25:3:2 hours
Acquisition:MaxIm DL 6, ACP Expert
Processing:PixInsight, Photoshop