M45 - The Pleiades

Distance From Earth: 440 Light Years
Diameter: 17 Light Years
Total Exposure Time: 27.3 Hours

The Pleiades is a nearby open star cluster located about 440 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. Its hot, blue B-type stars formed roughly 100 million years ago from the same molecular cloud and remain gravitationally associated. The faint blue nebulosity often seen around the cluster is a reflection nebula, caused by interstellar dust scattering starlight as the cluster passes through it, not by ongoing star formation.

The Pleiades is one of the most beautiful areas of the night sky and I always find myself wanting to come back to it over and over again. This is my most detailed version yet with more than a full day of total exposure time.