The Seven Sisters

At a distance of 444 light years, the open star cluster Pleiades (Messier 45) is among the closest clusters to Earth and can be easily seen with the naked eye at night. Containing over a thousand stars loosely bound by gravity, it's visually dominated by a handful that are exceptionally bright, emitting light that reflect off the surface of their surrounding pitch-black clouds of cold, dust-laden gas to produce the reflection nebula that you see here. The Pleiades star cluster is well-known among many cultures by other names, such as The Seven Sisters, Subaru, Matarii, Parvin, and Mao. The name "Pleiades" actually helms from the ancient Greeks, likely derived from "plein" ("to sail") due to the cluster's importance in aiding sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. Eventually, the "Pleiades" name as it's known today arose out of Greek mythology to represent the seven divine sisters. Here are the details on how I produced this photograph: • Camera Lens: Rokinon 135mm F2.0 ED UMC • Camera: ZWO ASI294MC Pro • Light Filters: ZWO UV/IR Cut • Mount: Sky Watcher Star Adventurer GTi • Guiding: ASI120MM Mini (30mm scope) • Control Hub: ZWO ASIAIR Pro • Calibration: 40 dark, flat, dark-flat frames • Stacking: Astro Pixel Processor • Editing: Photoshop, Starnet++ • Total Exposure: 5 hours