| Telescope / Lens | 300mm f/2.8 Lens; 420mm f/4 Lens DSLR |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on G11 (Stepper) |
| Camera | Canon F-1 ; Canon 20D |
| Filters | 112mm UV |
| Film | Kodak E200 (Slide Film) DSLR |
| Exposure | 2 film exposures 45 min. ea; manual guiding FS/78; 10 DSLR |
| Processing | Slides scanned Nikon 5000 @ 4000dpi 16bit (130 MB files) 3 images stacked; processed in Photoshop CS5 AIP & CCDStack DSLR images stacked with film in CCDStack |
| Date | 7/25/2003 & 8/20/2004 |
| Location | Oregon Star Party 120° 09′ W 44° 18′ N Indian Trail Springs, Ochoco National Forest (Also Eagles Rest 25 miles SE of Dexter, Or.) |
| Conditions | 5000′ magnitude 6.2 Skies; Clear & Steady |
The Pleiades Open Star Cluster M45 is a well known naked eye Open Star Cluster in the constellation of Taurus (The Bull). The Pleiades is a young open cluster of stars enshrouded in gas and dust which is illuminated by several bright stars. Also know as the Seven Sisters covering an area of 2° and lying a mere 415-444 light years away. In fact through binoculars you can see nine prominent stars, two of which are the parents of the seven sisters. The stars are of varying brightness and distances from Earth. They vary from Magnitude 2.9 Alcyone 240 ly to Celaeno magnitude 5.5 and 590 ly distant.
The bright stars are middle aged hot B type Blue stars forming the closets star cluster to earth. They formed approximately 100 million years ago. The nebula is not related to the stars and is just illuminated interstellar dust.
This formation of stars (6) is know as Subaru in Japan (to unite). It was chosen as Subaru brand of cars which united 5 companies into one thus the 6 stars depicted for their logo.