The Pleiades

The Pleiades as photographed from our backyard
 at 1.30am on the 5th of November 2013. Taken with
 a Canon 600D DSLR and EOS telescopic lens at focal
    length 300mm, on a NEQ6 Pro driven equatorial mount .

The Pleiades, Messier 45, Melotte 22 or the 'Seven Sisters' is a relatively bright open cluster of gravitationally bound stars which are easily seen with the naked eye.  As a consequence of their visibility, the stars of the Pleiades are the subject of folklore for diverse cultures.  In many tales the stars represent seven sisters, who pursued by any number of different antagonists, group together for flight or fight. The earliest reference to this asterism is ascribed to the Bronze Age.

The Pleiades are located within the constellation, Taurus the Bull and contain over 1000 stars although many are thought to be low mass brown dwarf stars. The brighter stars are relatively young, approximately 100 million years old, and are hot B type stars. The stars,135 parsecs distant, are gravitationally bound and moving across the sky with the same proper motion towards the constellation Orion the Hunter.  The cluster is currently moving through a particularly dusty part of the interstellar medium and radiation from the cluster's hot stars is being reflected off the dust creating a blue reflection nebula which can be seen in my long exposure photographs.

You will not be able to see the nebulosity with the naked eye or for that matter  with binoculars or a small telescope but you can see the beautiful blue white stars.  A young person with good eyesight should be able to count all nine of the brighter stars and maybe a few more. The view through binoculars or a small telescope is breathtaking!  My first look at the night sky, at the age of ten years, through a  toy telescope, was my first adventure into stargazing.  So, on the next clear night, why not go out and take a look at the 'Seven sisters'? The light from these stars has been travelling for between 390 and 460 years so it would be a shame to waste any of the photons!

How come there are nine bright named stars and only seven sisters?  Well Pleione and Atlas were mum and dad to Alcyone, Sterope, Maia, Taygeta, Caleano, Electra and Merope!

Annotated version of my image of the 'Seven Sisters'

Pleiades bright stars

Name	Pronunciation (IPA & respelling)	Designation	Apparent magnitude	Stellar classification
Alcyone	/ælˈsaɪ.əniː/ al-sy-ə-nee	Eta (25) Tauri	2.86	B7IIIe
Atlas	/ˈætləs/ at-ləs	27 Tauri	3.62	B8III
Electra	/ɨˈlɛktrə/ i-lek-trə	17 Tauri	3.70	B6IIIe
Maia	/ˈmeɪə/, /ˈmaɪə/ may-ə, my-ə	20 Tauri	3.86	B7III
Merope	/ˈmɛrəpiː/ merr-ə-pee	23 Tauri	4.17	B6IVev
Taygeta	/teɪˈɪdʒɨtə/ tay-ij-i-tə	19 Tauri	4.29	B6V
Pleione	/ˈplaɪ.əniː/ ply-ə-nee	28 (BU) Tauri	5.09 (var.)	B8IVpe
Celaeno	/sɨˈliːnoʊ/ sə-lee-noh	16 Tauri	5.44	B7IV
Sterope, Asterope	/ˈstɛrɵpiː/, /əˈstɛrɵpiː/ (ə)-sterr-ə-pee	21 and 22 Tauri	5.64;6.41	B8Ve/B9V
—	—	18 Tauri	5.65	B8V

Credits: SkyMap Pro for base map and Wikipedia