You know autumn has arrived when the 7 stars of the Pleiades cluster are rising during the evening. On a recent trip out into the countryside researching a dark sky site I took this picture with the Canon 350D on the Astrotrac. Exposures are 120 seconds at ISO 800 and there are 12 individual frames.
This group of young stars was born out of a cloud of hydrogen only about 100 millions years ago. The blue glow around the brightest stars is a reflection from the dust cloud that they’re currently travelling through. The cloud has been sculpted by the inter-stellar magnetic fields around the stars. At a distance of around 425 light years, they’re the closest of the Messier objects.
Fellow club member Malcolm has also just posted an image of M45 as well: M45 Revisited