Open cluster and Nebulosity M45 (the Pleiades) in Taurus

The cluster is composed of very young stars (about 100 million years old) and is located about 380 light years away. The star on the right with the most nebulosity is Merope (the nebulosity is NGC1435). The central star with the next largest amount of nebulosity is Maia. The bright star at the bottom is Alcycone. If you hold the mouse over this image, you will see the area around M45 taken with a 200mm f2.8 lens in a piggyback mode.

Images taken with TEC-140 Telescope mounted on Losmandy G11 mount. Camera used was a Canon EOS20D used at prime focus.

Eight 2 minute exposures dark compensated, aligned and stacked, background removed and Digitaly Developed in ImagesPlus 2.75