A panorama of the centre of the Galaxy portion of the southern hemisphere Milky Way, from Crux at right to Aquila at left. This was taken from Atacama Lodge near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on May 2, 2011. It is a 6-segment mosaic, each segment being 4 x 6 minutes + 1 x 6 minutes with a Kenko Softon filter, all at f/4 and ISO 800 with the Canon 5D MkII and Canon L-series 35m lens. Note the sweep of bright blue stars from Scorpius to Orion but angled above then across and below the Milky Way — this is Gould's Belt of new hot stars near us.
Hyades, and Aldebaran in the face of Taurus the bull, with smaller open cluster NGC 1647 at left. This is a stack of 4 x 4 minutes exposures with Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 800 and 135mm lens at f/2.8, plus two exposures at the same settings but with Kenko Softon filter in place to add star glows.
