Pleiades (M45) Observation Details
M45 Daily Motion
M45 will not be observable tonight. It will reach its transit at 77° by 18:08 and set at 01:29. Throughout the night, from 02:44 to 06:14, it will be below the horizon. M45 will rise again after sunrise, at 10:43.M45 will be visible until April, 7, when it will move too close to the Sun. During this time, its proximity to the Sun will cause it to disappear from the night sky, making it unobservable for a while.
M45 Visibility Timetable on February 22
M45 Rise and Set Timetable
| Time | Elevation | |
| Moon Rise, 43.7% illuminated | 03:29 | -17° |
| Moon Set | 12:30 | 19° |
| M45 transit | 18:08 | 77° |
| Sunset | 18:15 | 77° |
| Civil sunset | 18:43 | 75° |
| Astrosession begin | 19:44 | 66° |
| M45 set | 01:29 | |
| Astrosession end | 05:44 | -28° |
| M45 rise | 10:43 |
Track M45 Position Throughout the Night
← Sat, 22 February 2025 →
| Time | |
| Altitude | |
| Azimuth |
M45 - Pleiades
The Pleiades (M45), also known as the Seven Sisters, is an open cluster located in the constellation Taurus. It has been known since antiquity and was later cataloged by Charles Messier in 1771. M45 is one of the nearest open clusters to Earth and contains a bright population of stars.
M45 spans about 17.5 light-years across and contains over 1,000 stars. The cluster is approximately 444 light-years away from Earth and has an apparent magnitude of 1.6, making it visible to the naked eye under most skies.
M45 Image Gallery
DSS Blue
DSS Red
DSS Near-Infrared
DSS Composite image
The photos are taken from the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS2), which was produced at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) under NASA contract, using data from the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II).
Special thanks to the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, and the California Institute of Technology for their significant contributions.
Finder Chart for M45
| Object name | M45 |
| Field of view | |
| Limiting magnitude | |
| M45 coordinates | 3.76378, 24.36786 |
| Center coordinates | 3.76378, 24.36786 |
M45 Passage Through Night
Current position of M45
| Time | 02:44 |
| Latitude | 37.751 |
| Longitude | -97.822 |
| M45 elevation | -12° |
| M45 Azimuth | 46° |
Annual motion of M45
| Date | Sun, 23 February 2025 |
| Twighlight start | 19:41 |
| Twighlight end | 05:37 |
| Twighlight duration | 10h 57m |
| Rise | 10:43 |
| Set | 01:25 |
| Elevation at transit | 77° |
| Transit time | 18:04 |
| Equatorial coordinates | RA: 03h 45m 49s", Dec: 24° 22' 04s |
| Magnitude | - |
| Constellation | Taurus |
The graph is structured with the vertical axis showing the hours of the day, ranging from 12 AM to 12 AM the next day, while the horizontal axis spans each day of the year.
The reddish shaded area indicates the periods when the M45 is above the horizon, visible to observers. The white line marks the times when the celestial object reaches its highest point in the sky each day, known as the transit.
Data Credits
The nebulae information on this page is sourced from the OpenNGC project, developed by Matteo Verga. OpenNGC provides detailed data on the NGC catalog, which is a valuable resource for exploring deep-sky objects such as nebulae.
For more details or to contribute to OpenNGC, visit the official GitHub repository: OpenNGC on GitHub.