Deep Sky Objects Viewing
Orion Nebula and Pleiades, by Peter Sitterle
Orion Nebula
The Orion nebula, or Messier 42, M42, or NGC 1976, is a diffuse nebula. It is one of the brightest nebulae, and is visible to the naked eye in the night sky. M42 is at a distance of 1,34420 light years. It is the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. It is south of the Orion's Belt in the constellation of Orion. Big as it is, the Orion nebula is just part of an even larger star-forming area known as the Orion complex.
Pleiades
The Pleiades (also known as M45 or the Seven Sisters) are a group of stars in the night sky. Charles Messier gave it the name M45. This an open star cluster of middle-aged hot B-type stars in the constellation of Taurus. It is one of the nearest star clusters to Earth, and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The cluster is dominated by hot and blue extremely luminous stars that have formed within the last 100 million years.