Hyades Widefield
Characteristics:
Position Angle: 259 degrees
RA: 04h 26m 36s (J2000)
Dec: +18degrees 25' 56" (J2000)
Description:
The Hyades is the nearest open star
cluster to Earth, with a distance of only 153 light years. In
Greek mythology, the stars of this cluster were named after the five
daughters of Atlas and the half-sisters
of the Pleiades, forming the famous "V" shaped asterism in the
constellation Taurus (representing the "head of the bull").
Although the majority of bright stars in this image belong to the
Hyades, the brightest star in the lower right (Aldebaran) is separate,
being closer to Earth (65 light years) and not gravitationally bound to
the other stars in the cluster. What is most noteworthy about
this field of view is the widespread dust that hides nascent star
formation and several Herbig-Haro
objects. This is especially the case for regions such as SH2-239
and NGC 1555, which are identified in my labeled
image. More information about this well-studied region may be
found here.
Photographic
Details:
Dates of image
acquistion: November 5, 6, and 8, 2021
Scope/Camera:
FSQ106/U16M for central portion of image (3.5"/pixel); Samyang/Rokinon
135mm lens/Canon T71 for widefield (5.8"/pixel)
Autoguider: ST402
Filters (for U16M):
Baader LRGB
Exposures: Total
exposure 15 hours (U16M: 5 hours; Canon T7i: 10 hours)
Processing:
Preprocessed in PixInsight; Postprocessed in Photoshop
CS (16
bit format)
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note: Graphics on this website
may not be reproduced without author permission.
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