M45 Pleiades (Seven Sisters)

Here’s the result of my second attempt on the Pleiades, taken last week.  The first attempt was halted by fog, and my third, in which I must have taken about 40 shots was a complete failure as my software failed to recognise just about all of them.  I’d like to say I’m learning, but I’m not sure what went wrong!

Still, isn’t this just beautiful?  The Pleiades or Seven Sisters, in Taurus, also known as M45 in the Messier Catalogue.  Young, hot, blue/white stars, gently illuminating the swirls of gas that gave birth to them just some 20 million years ago.  For reference, our own Sun is around 4,500 million years old.  The Pleiades is easily seen with the naked eye – it’s that little cluster of stars that seems really bright out of the corner of your eye, but kind of fades away when you look at it directly.

M45 Pleiades (Seven Sisters)
M45 Pleiades (Seven Sisters)

Imaging Data:
Canon EOS 300D at prime focus
12 x 120 second unguided sub-exposures giving a total of 24 mins exposure
For calibration/noise reduction:
5 dark frames
10 flat frames shot at twilight
10 bias/offset frames
all stacked in DeepSkyStacker
Levels, curves, saturation adjustment in DeepSkyStacker