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   ContentHTML : '<img src=\'images/ferant/taurus/m45med.jpg\' alt="The Pleiades" width=400 height=269 align=right vspace=0 border=2 name="Image1" id="Image1" onMouseOver="MM_swapImage(\'Image1\',\'\',\'images/ferant/taurus/m45med_names.jpg\',1)" onMouseOut="MM_swapImgRestore()"><b>The Pleiades, also known as Messier 45 or M45,</b> is perhaps one of the best known deep sky objects visible in the northern hemisphere. The earliest known reference to the cluster dates back to around 1000 BC, with several other ancient citations existing. At a distance of 380 light years, this open cluster of young, hot stars blazes brilliantly even under moderate light pollution.<br><br>Placing your mouse on the image above will make the names of the more prominant stars appear.<br><br>The cluster is also known as "The Seven Sisters" ("Subaru" in Japanese) although only six stars are presently visible to the naked eye under normal observing conditions. With optimal seeing, as many as a dozen may be discerned. The cluster actually contains at least 500 faint members.<br><br>Quite apparent in the image above is the bluish nebulae surrounding the brighter stars of the cluster. The blue color of the nebulosity indicates that they are <i>reflection</i> nebulae, in which the clouds of dust and gas are reflecting the light from the stars within, behind or in front of them. Normally, a blue reflection nebula is directly associated with the stars in the cluster - leftovers from the cluster\'s creation. This is not the case with the Pleiades cluster, however. Studies of the proper motion of the cluster stars, compared with the velocity and direction of the gas and dust indicates that their proximity is a chance encounter. The cluster stars are moving in one direction while the cloud is traveling in another with a velocity of about 7 miles per second relative to each other.<br><br>The beautiful close-up image of the Pleiades above was captured by <a href="http://www.telescopes.cc/default.htm" target="_blank">Mathew Russell</a> from Crosslake, Minnesota, in October of 2002.<br><br>Mathew recorded this spectacular image through a Takahashi 4.2" Apochromatic refracting telescope on an SBIG CCD camera. A larger, high resolution image is available at <a href="http://www.telescopes.cc/m45large.htm" target="_blank">Mathew\'s web site</a>.<br><br>(Images used with permission.)',
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