06/13/2026
The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters or Messier 45, is an asterism and an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Ta**us.
In many Australian Aboriginal cultures, the Pleiades are a group of young girls, and are often associated with sacred women’s ceremonies and stories. The Pleiades are also important as an element of Aboriginal calendars and astronomy, and for several groups their first rising at dawn marks the start of winter.
At a distance of around 444 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the most obvious cluster to the naked eye in the night sky.
The cluster is dominated by hot blue luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. Reflection nebulae around the brightest stars were once thought to be left over material from their formation, but are now considered likely to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium through which the stars are currently passing.
Captured from the backyard in Perth, Western Australia this image comprises almost 8hrs of total integration using a combination of L, R, G and B filters.
