| Designation |
Messier 45 "The Pleiades" (Mel 22)
|
| Type | Open Star Cluster with reflection nebula |
| Constellation | Taurus |
| Coordinates |
Telescope
centered at RA '03 48 19' Dec '+24 00 04'
|
| Magnitude | 1.2 |
| Size | 7 Light Years across (40 LY for faint extended members) |
| Distance | 410 light years from Earth |
| Dimensions | 110 x 110 arcminutes |
| Image Field | 90.6 x 113 arcminutes |
|
Notes:
|
Appropriately described as Sapphires wrapped in swirls of cirrus nebulosity. Reference to 7 stars is curious as 9 are visible to the eye from reasonable skies. Brightest stars are blue giants with absolute magnitudes 330 to 1,000 times that of our sun. |
| About 150 million light years old, the star cluster is not assosiated with the blue nebulosity, which is just the "Taurus dark cloud complex through which it is currently passing. The dust from this cloud reflects the light of the stars. | |
|
|
Hundreds of the fainter stars are also part of this complex. |
| Telescope | Takahashi FS60C f/5.9 on Losmandy G-11 with Gemini L3 |
| Focal Length | 264 mm @ f/4.4 with Takahashi focal reducer |
| Guiding | Starlight Xpress SXV guidehead through 10" SCT @ f/6.3 |
| Telescope Control | Maxim DL (V3) |
| CCD Camera |
Starlight Xpress SXV-H9 - USB 2 ExView progressive
scan
1392 x 1040 (6.45 uM) pixel array (8.98 x 6.71 active area)
|
| Image Scale | 5.23 arcsec/pixel |
| Filters |
1.25" Astronomik Type II Dichroic
IR blocking filters in Astronomik filter drawer - Clear, Red, Green,
Blue
|
| Exposures | Total exposure time: 86 minutes - Lum - 15 x 2 (30) unbinned - R - 7x2 (14) binned 2x. G - 6x2 (12) binned 2x, B - 10 x 3 (30) unbinned |
| Calibration | Bias frames |
| Processing Software | Maxim DL, Photoshop CS (8.0), Neat Image |
| Location | Chiefland Astronomy Village, FL - 29.393 N , - 82.863 W |
| Date/Time | 09/18/04 '08:15' - '10:31' UT' |
