A mosaic of the region around the centre of the Milky Way in Sagittarius and Scorpius. The field takes in the Milky Way from the Cat's Paw Nebula at bottom edge to the Eagle Nebula at top left. In between from top to bottom are the Swan Nebula (M17), the Small Sagittarius Starcloud (M24), the Trifid and Lagoon Nebulas (M20 and M8) and the open clusters M6 and M7. The prominent dark nebula at right is the large Pipe Nebula (B78) with the small Snake Nebula (B72) above it. The whole complex is visible to the naked eye as the Dark Horse. This is a mosaic of 6 panels, each a stack of 5 x 3 minute exposures with the 135mm lens at f/2.8, and with the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 1600 tracking the sky on the iOptron SkyTracker, with no guidind. Images were stacked and stitched in Photoshop CC. Taken from the Four Bar Cottages near Portal Arizona, May 4/5, 2014.
A mosaic of the Milky Way around the Small Sagittarius Starcloud (M24). The field takes in the Milky Way from the Lagoon Nebula (M8) at bottom to the Eagle Nebula (m16) at top left. In between from top to bottom are the Swan Nebula (M17), and the Small Sagittarius Starcloud (M24). Flanking the bright M24 starcloud are the large open clusters M23 (right) and M25 (left). At bottom left is the M22 globular star cluster. This is a mosaic of 2 panels, each a stack of 5 x 3 minute exposures with the 135mm lens at f/2.8, and with the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 1600 tracking the sky on the iOptron SkyTracker, with no guidind. Images were stacked and stitched in Photoshop CC. Taken from the Four Bar Cottages near Portal Arizona, May 4/5, 2014.
The region around the Pipe Nebula (B78), the main part of the naked-eye formation of dark nebulas called the Dark Horse. In photos it breaks up into patches of dark nebulosity, including the tiny Snake Nebula (B72) at centre in Ophiuchus. I shot this the morning of May 5, 2014 from the Four Bar Cottages near the Arizona Sky Village near Portal, Arizona. This is a stack of 5 x 3 minute exposures with the 135mm telephoto lens at f/2.8 and filter modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 1600. It is one segment of a larger multi-panel mosaic.
