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Pleiades (The Seven Sisters)

CATALOG M45

DISTANCE 445 light-years

APPARENT MAGNITUDE 1.6

CONSTELLATION Taurus

OBJECT TYPE Open Cluster

CAPTURE DATE 3/14/2026

TOTAL EXPOSURE TIME 2 hours

SKY QUALITY (BORTLE) 4

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, is perhaps the most famous open star cluster in the night sky. Located in the constellation Taurus, it consists of over 1,000 stars, though it is dominated by a handful of extremely bright, hot blue giants.

Those sapphire whisps aren't actually gas from the stars, they’re a lucky cosmic coincidence. The Pleiades are simply speeding through an independent dust cloud at 25 miles per second, lighting it up like high-beams in a thick fog. This "reflection nebula" scatters the intense starlight toward Earth, creating the signature electric-blue glow

Fun Facts

For thousands of years, sailors and farmers used the Pleiades as a seasonal calendar. In many cultures, its appearance in the morning sky signaled the beginning of the sailing season or the time to plant crops.
The Japanese name for the cluster is Subaru. The six stars in the Subaru car logo represent the six stars of the cluster that are most visible to the naked eye.
Even though they are "ancient" by human standards, the stars in the cluster are only about 100 million years old. For comparison, our Sun is roughly 4.6 billion years old.
Most people can only see six stars with the naked eye. The "lost" seventh sister is a common theme in global folklore (from the Greeks to Native Americans to Aboriginal Australians), leading some astronomers to wonder if one of the stars has dimmed over the last few thousand years.

Processing Notes

My first time venturing out with the telescope in search of some darker skies. I parked the car at a nearby disused airfield, and set up the scope to capture 2 hours of 10 second exposures whilst I watched the football on my phone! :D Back on the PC, it wasn't easy to process this image as unfortunately the rear lights of my car contaminated the data so I had to use some techniques to lower the red levels. Turned out well, and much better than a previous attempt at capturing the Seven Sisters from my garden.