Photo of the Week for February 14, 2014
The Pleiades, also known as M45 or the Seven Sisters, is a conspicuous cluster of stars in the constellation Taurus. At a distance of 400 light-years from Earth, the cluster is one of the night sky’s most beautiful sights in binoculars or a small telescope. The surrounding nebulosity seen in this photo is only hinted at visually through a telescope. Dan Meek acquired this 4-hour RGB image from near Calgary, Alberta, using a Tele Vue-NP127is apochromatic refractor and a QSI 583wsg CCD camera.