The Pleiades, M45 in Taurus is the closest Messier object in the sky and is easily visible to the naked eye. What is not visible is the beautiful nebulosity around the young, hot, blue stars that make up this open star cluster. However, long exposure astrophotography reveals the nebulosity and this image is an integration of 174, five minute exposures making a total exposure time of 14.5 hours. To see details of the telescope setup that I used to take this image from my home click here.
Click on the image below to see the full resolution version.
