| Object: | Merope star from the Pleiades Cluster, M45 |
| Date: | October 24, 2003 |
| Equipment: | TEC140 at F/7, HX916 CCD, G11 mount, ST-4 autoguider |
| Exposure: | RGB 60:20:20 minutes |
| Processing: | Photoshop |
| Comments: | Click
here to see the full-resolution image The black-and-white version is available here I used a long sub-exposure of 10 minutes which caused all the stars to loose their natural color. Next time, I might consider shorter sub-exposures... |
| Description: | The Pleiades cluster consists of over 500 stars. The brightest 11 are visible to the naked eye. The cluster is passing through a molecular gas cloud at a speed of 6.8 miles/sec. The stars in the cluster illuminate the blue reflection nebula, which would otherwise remain invisible. The cluster is located at 380 light years from Earth. |
Copyright © 2003 Paul Kanevsky
