Mars, Taurus clusters, and Molecular Clouds
Planet Mars (bright object bottom) gets angularly closest to the Pleiades star cluster in the Taurus constellation on March 3rd, 2021. It is the closest conjunction of the Red Planet to the cluster until 2038. Just days before this moment, the planet was as bright as the star Aldebaran (left), the brightest star and a red giant in the Taurus constellation (14th brightest star in the night sky), the “eye of the Bull“. Aldebaran is about 67 light-years distant from us, about halfway from Hyades star cluster surrounding the red giant in our night sky. Deeper imaging of this region reveals also complex molecular clouds and fainter star clusters. The most beautiful “cloudy” object is, however, the large nebula NGC 1499, called “California Nebula” (right upper corner) in the edge of the Perseus constellation. For this image, I used Canon 6D modified, Samyang 50 mm, f1.4 (nebulae), 3.5 (stars), VFFilter Night Sky, ISO 3200, 1-minute exposures of 63 minutes total time, from tripod and Vixen Polarie mount. Captured on March 2nd/3rd, 2021, from Ústupky, Czech Republic.
