Hyades and Pleiades

Taken on a holiday in Portugal, this was a time exposure using a Pentax K1000 piggy-backed onto an ETX90 telescope. The sky was clear enough to show up dark gas clouds and some star clusters.

The view is of Taurus (The Bull), the bright star towards the bottom left is the bull's red eye, Aldeberan, a red giant which is 68 light years away from us. The 'V' is the head of the bull and is also the heart of the Hyades star cluster. The star at top left, El Nath, marks one of the horns.

To the right is the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters, which looks to the naked eye like a small saucepan and is about 415 light years away - the light we see now began its journey when William Shakespeare was alive. These stars are younger and hotter than the Hyades cluster, which gives a bluish appearance.

Hope you enjoy.

Title:	Hyades and Pleiades
Username:	cceccles
Uploaded:	1 Apr 2007 - 9:47 PM
Camera:	Pentax K1000
Lens:	50mm
Recording media:	ISO200 Neg
Tags:	Astronomy, Hyades, Landscape / travel, Night sky, Pleiades, Specialist / abstract, Stars
Votes:	11