Explanation:
Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster?
Even if you have, you probably have never seen it like this: all dusty.
Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright stars of the
Pleiades
can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a
light-polluted city.
With a long exposure from a dark location, though, the dust cloud surrounding the
Pleiades star
cluster becomes very evident.
The above exposure took about 30 hours and covers a sky area several times the size of the full moon.
Also known as the Seven Sisters and
M45,
the Pleiades lies about 400 light years away toward the constellation of the Bull
(Taurus).
A common legend with a
modern twist is that one of the brighter stars faded since the cluster was named, leaving only six stars visible to the unaided eye.
The actual number of
Pleiades stars visible, however, may be more or less than seven, depending on the
darkness of the surrounding sky and the
clarity of the observer's eyesight.
APOD Retrospective:
The Pleiades Star Cluster
