M45 – The Pleiades by Syed Taha
“The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters and Messier 45, is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. It is among the star clusters nearest to Earth, it is the nearest Messier object to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue and luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.
The Pleiades were the seven daughters of the titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione born on Mount Cyllene. They were the sisters of Calypso, Hyas, the Hyades, and the Hesperides. Together with the seven Hyades, they were called the Atlantides, Dodonides, or Nysiades, nursemaids and teachers to the infant Dionysus. They were thought to have been translated to the night sky as a cluster of stars, the Pleiades, and were associated with rain.
They were named Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope and Merope. The loss of one of the sisters, Merope, in some myths may reflect an astronomical event wherein one of the stars in the Pleiades star cluster disappeared from view by the naked eye.”
Equipment:
Takahashi FSQ85-EDX
Takahashi EDP Flattener 1.01X for FSQ-85EDX
QHY268M
QHYCFW3-M-US
Chroma LRGB filters
Pegasus Falcon Rotator
Esatto 3” Robotic Microfocuser
Tecnosky 70 mm Guidescope & Lodestar X2
Avalon M-Uno
Pegasus Ultimate Powerbox
Intel NUC Mini PC
Acquisition (all @ Gain 0 & Offset 30 in High Gain Mode):
L: 125 x 180s = 375 min = 6h15min
R: 42 x 180s = 126 min = 2h3min
G: 29 x 180s = 87 min = 1h27min
B: 39 x 180s = 117 min = 1h57min
Taken from my backyard – Bortle 5, SQM 19.75 mag/arcsec^2