Starlight Textures (the Pleiades)

The Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, is probably the best-known star clusters. At only 400 lightyears away, its six brightest stars are easily visible to the naked eye as a tight, dipper-shaped cluster.

The Pleiades are traveling through an area in space rich in interstellar dust. In astrophotography, the Pleiades are surrounded by blue nebulosity with intricate texture. The blue colour is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light from the stars, the same physics that make the sky blue on Earth.

This image was captured in RGB with a total exposure time of 7.5 hours, using a Canon 300mm f/4 L telephoto lens on a star tracker.