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Community photo entitled The Pleaides and a distant galaxy by Steven Bellavia on 12/12/2025 at Smithfield, VA

The Pleaides and a distant galaxy

On 12/12/2025 11:00 pm by Steven Bellavia | Website | Smithfield, VA

The Pleiades, Messier 45, is an open star cluster in the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 450 light-years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and the nearest Messier object to Earth. It contains the reflection nebulae NGC 1432, an HII region and NGC 1435, the Merope Nebula.
And hiding, incredibly further in the background, you can see galaxy PGC 13696, which is 275 million light years away.

William Optics WhiteCat 51 f/4.9 Petzval refractor
ZWO ASI 533MC Pro camera
SkyWatcher EQ6R Pro equatorial mount

300 x 30 second images processed in PixInsight and Canon Digital Photo Professional