Finally, through the clouds!

Well hasn't the weather been interminably grey and dull?! It's been so long since I saw the stars on a moonless night that I'd almost forgotten how to use a telescope. However, unpredicted by my usual weather channels, last night ended up being mostly clear! Seeing an opportunity I dashed out and set up the equipment....badly; my first alignment went completely to pot. However, a few tweaks and more than a little swearing later, I was set up and ready to go. What I was short of though, was a target. This time of year is, in my opinion, a little tough for someone with an infrared filter on their camera sensor. Most of the nebulae available (with the exception of M42 which I've visited too often to waste this rare night upon) at my location are heavy with Hydrogen-alpha, which means I'll struggle a bit with a standard DSLR. Thankfully though, there are plenty of galaxies, and it was to one of these that I first turned my attention.

M33 The Triangulum / Pinwheel Galaxy. Around 30 minutes worth of  90s subs @ ISO 800 unguided. 15 darks, 15 flats. TS Optics 6" Newtonian and Canon EOS 1100D. Stacked and processed in DSS with a quick tweak in PS. APT used for image capture.

I'm not over the moon at the results - I could have done with much longer subs, and there is a definite gradient which, from its colour, I blame on the occasional cloud scudding across the field of view. It's a lovely galaxy though, with those sweeping, face-on spiral arms. It's quite small compared to our own galactic neighbourhood, with perhaps 10% of the number of stars as the Milky Way. It's fairly close by (a mere 3 million light years) in the constellation of Triangulum, whence comes the name. I was please to get this, as all previous attempts at this object have been lacklustre to say the least. Spurred on by this, and the fact that I had enough subs by 9 o'clock, I decided to turn my attention to something new. Not far away, in the constellation of Taurus, lies the Pleiades open cluster. This is a familiar sight to many, just up and to the right of Orion the Hunter.

M45 "The Pleiades": Around 45 mins of 90s subs. All other capture detail as with M33 above. The Seven sisters, moving from bottom to top in this image, are Electra, Calaeno, Taygeta, Merope, Maya, Asterope and Alcyone. The pair near the top are Atlas, their father, and Pleione, their mother.

These stars are wandering their way through the galaxy together and, at the moment, are passing through a dust cloud which they are lighting up to create this lovely blue nebulosity. These stars are very young, very hot and extremely bright, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand times the luminosity of the Sun.

I love the Greek mythology surrounding the Pleaides. Atlas the Titan was condemned to hold up the sky by Zeus, for his part in the war between the Titans and the Olympians. Orion, meanwhile, pursued Atlas' daughters, the seven sisters. As a comfort to their father, Zeus turned each of these daughters into doves and then into stars, so that they could be with their father as he bore the heavens. The legend has it that to this day, Orion pursues the Pleiades still across the sky. They had real-world significance to the Greeks too, as to ancient Mediterranean farmers the first apparition of the Pleiades was a sign that ploughing and sowing should begin in earnest.