These images show Messier 45 - the Pleiades open star cluster. This is a structure in the sky known since antiquity, and its rise marked the start of the sailing season in the eastern Mediterranean. The ancients saw 7 stars; we see 6 and imagine one; our telescopes see 1000 and a swirling nebula around them to boot.

At 444 light years away, this is the closest open star cluster to the Earth. It's dominated by young, blue stars which illuminate the star-stuff that hasn't been sucked into a star yet. Or perhaps not - popular thought among modern professional astronomers is that the cluster is passing through an unrelated gas cloud. Whatever the truth might be, the blue colour here is real - it's the colour of local starlight.

For astrophotographers, open clusters are a bit dull - not colorful or dramatic. This one is both.