M45 - also known as the Pleiades or "The Seven Sisters" is an open cluster of young stars surrounded by the hydrogen gas and dust from which they formed. This cluster is often mistaken by novice stargazers for the Little Dipper due to its similar shape. M45 is approximately 375 light-years from Earth.

Image capture and processing information:

Date/Location: September 02, 2005 Lake Sonoma, Sonoma County, California
Instrument: Canon 6.1 Megapixel 300D Digital Rebel SLR through a modified Orion ED100 refractor
Focal Ratio: Approximately f6.0
Guiding: Manually guided through a Celestron CM-1100 Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector
Conditions: Visually clear
Weather: 65 F, slight breeze
Exposure: 25 minutes @ ISO 1600 (5 x 5 min exposures)
Processing: Focused and captured with DSLRFocus. Images stacked and processed using RegiStax 2.1 and Microsoft Photo Editor