AP#13 : M45
Name: The Pleiades or "Seven sisters"
Constellation:Taurus
Instrument: 8-inch telescope with sky watcher coma corrector and an ASI 2600MC (Gain 100 -20C)
Exposure time: 25 three-minute exposures.
Star Chart from Michael Vlasov's Deep sky hunter star atlas available on line https://www.deepskywatch.com/deep-sky-hunter-atlas.html
Magnitude: 1.6
Angular size: 2 degrees
This is the most prominently visible open clusters in the sky and is composed of many bright young stars. The nearby Hyades are larger but they are spread out to the point that only astronomers understand that they are also a cluster of stars. The reflection nebula associated with the cluster were thought to originally be part of the gas that produced the cluster but it is now believed to be just a dust cloud the stars are moving through. The multi-colored Merope nebula is most prominent of the reflection nebula visible in this image.
