M45 Pleiades (aka - The Seven Sisters)
Magnitude: 1.6
Distance: Aprox: 444 light-years
Constellation: Taurus
The Pleiades are an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. Dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars was thought at first to be left over from the formation of the cluster, is an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing. Computer simulations have shown that the Pleiades were probably formed from a compact configuration that resembled the Orion Nebula. Astronomers estimate that the cluster will survive for about another 250 million years, after which it will disperse due to gravitational interactions with its galactic neighborhood.
Taken 2/17/18 in Chiefland Florida by Russell Kille on a CPC 1100 with Hyperstar @ F2 and ZWO ASI294MC Pro camera
