The forty-fifth object in Charles Messier's catalog is more commonly known as the Pleiades. It is located in northwestern Taurus, easily visible the naked eye. Look for the brilliant red supergiant, Aldebaran, as you get your bearings. It's the brightest star in Taurus and is framed by a V-shaped grouping of stars in a cluster called the Hyades. M45 is 14 degrees to the northwest. It should appear as a fuzzy patch of sky about the same size as the full Moon on first inspection. However, as your eyes adapt to the darkness, you may be able to resolve the brightest members of the this open cluster. How many do you see? This is a great binocular object. The best view in a telescope will be found a low magnification.
| Winter Sky Tour: M45-The Pleiades (Taurus) RA: 03h 47.5m / DEC: +24° 06'.3 |
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Revised: February 10, 2002 [WDF]
The TeleVue 32-mm Plossl produces 36X over a 1.4-degree true field in my 10-inch, just right for this stunning cluster. My sketch records 68 stars ranging from 3rd to 11th magnitude. Many fainter stars are visible but would simply have cluttered the final product. The brightest members of the cluster are shrouded in nebulosity. The delicate Merope nebula extends south from 23 Tauri almost to the edge of the field. This is a fine binocular object that, to the uninitiated, is sometimes mistaken for the Big Dipper.