Picture taken by D.Nash February 2005

M45 Pleiades or Seven Sisters is an Open Cluster and most people are amazed that Messier deemed it fitting to include it in his catalogue.

 M45 lies in Taurus and is between 390 and 460 light years distant.  Although known as the seven sisters the cluster consists of approximately 1000 stars.  The cluster is dominated by hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.  It is thought that the Pleiades cluster once looked like the trapezium stars in the Orion Nebula.  It is estimated that M45 will remain an open cluster for only 250 million years after that the stars will disperse due to the gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbourhood.  Because of the size and nature of this cluster it is best observed using a pair of binoculars as telescopes tend to punch a hole in the cluster, and you miss the overall beauty.

Below is a video by Deep Sky Videos