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(IAAC) Object: M45 (Pleiades), NGC1435, NGC1432 - Instrument: Newtonian 12.5" f/4.8


Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: 1996-07-21, 07:25 UT
Location: Savoy, MA, USA (42N)
Site classification: rural
Limiting magnitude: 7.3
Seeing: 4 - poor
Moon up: no
Instrument: Newtonian 12.5" f/4.8
Magnification: 55x, 122x
Filters used: none
Object: M45, NGC1435, NGC1432, IC
Category: Open cluster with Nebulosity
Constellation: Tau
Data: mag 1.2  size 100'
RA/DE: 03h47m  +24o07m
Description: This outrageously bright clustering
of stars is worth a look, not only for its beauty
in even the smallest of instruments, but also for
the challenge to even more experienced amateurs of
seeing the delicate patches of nebulosity which
are associated with it. At the altitude I saw it
at on this morning (< 25 degs), with astronomical
twilight already fast approaching, three and poss-
ibly four blurs could be distinguished around some
of the stars in the Seven Sisters: the central 3
bright stars, Alcyone, Electra, and Maya showed a
pale hint of nebulosities merging into each other,
while the southernmost bright star, Merope, had its
own thin patch of haze. The object as a whole, with
just the brightest 30 stars or so, barely fits into
a wider-field view, while higher power will bring a
more definite impression of the nebulosity out.