This image was taken using the societies TOA130 and a Canon 5D2 DSLR. A total of 39 * 300 second exposures were taken and subsequently processed in PixInsight

The small group of stars can be seen with the unaided eye during the winter months high above and to the west of Orion and Taurus. They are a wonderful object to observe with binoculars.

The cluster consists of hot blue and extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years. The dust that forms a faint reflection nebulosity around the brightest stars is now thought to be an unrelated dust cloud in the interstellar medium, through which the stars are currently passing through.