On September 13, the Moon passed through the Pleiades (M45), briefly hiding several of the cluster’s stars behind its disk. In reality, the encounter wasn’t nearly as dramatic: the Moon’s brightness completely overwhelms the faint glow of the gas and dust surrounding the Pleiades.
The collage shows something the unaided eye can’t see. It combines the real positions of the Moon and the stars at that moment with a deep exposure of the Pleiades taken at a different time. The result is an impossible scene: the Moon suspended against a swarm of stars, with delicate blue filaments of nebulosity that refuse to fade in its glare.
