Pleiades star cluster

[Guest]

Just come in from a brief sojourn through the stars with my eight inch Newtonian.

Mars, M81 & M82 also The Orion Nebula.

Pleiades was featured aswell. It looked good with my 22mm & 11mm eyepieces. But the most pleasing through my 16 mm Nivana eyepiece. Through this eyepiece I had the impression that there was a slight haze around the brighter stars in Pleiades. Could this be nebulosity? Or just my wishful thinking and imagination.

Below is a link to a picture of Pleiades from Wikipedia. This shows the nebulosity.

https://images.app.goo.gl/rjYxdHYhb2QPdjPU6

Edited December 12, 2020 by Guest
Picture link added.

[John]

There is some nebulosity around Merope in the Pleiades:

https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/the-merope-nebula-and-its-well-kept-secret/

 

[Nyctimene]

All the brighter Pleiades stars are embedded in reflection nebulosities, the brightest one being the Merope nebula. If you are not sure, if you can make out the nebulosities, there' s a trick:

A conspicuous star chain,  called "Ally's Braid", runs roughly N-S in the eastern part of the Pleiades. The area E of the chain is completely free from nebulosities.  It's easy to compare this region to the area with suspected nebulosities.  Member "mackiedlem's" picture shows Ally's (=Alcyone's) Braid in the lower half, pointing to the right-down corner, and the adjacent dark area quite well:

Stephan

Edited December 13, 2020 by Nyctimene
Picture added

[Sunshine]

You mean they were a bit hazy like this? no, it’s nothing wrong with your eyepiece or scope lol.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Sunshine

[Waddensky]

The Pleiades nebulosity is very hard to observe visually, but not impossible from a really dark location with a sufficiently large scope. The nebula around Merope is the brightest part. Here are some interesting visual reports. I've never seen it with my 8" though, even from a dark site.

But in most cases, glare from the brightest stars or an atmospheric haze may be mistaken for the nebulosity.