A panoramic mosaic of bright starclouds and dark stardust in the rich region of the Milky Way around the centre of the Galaxy in Sagittarius. This panorama extends from the tail of Scorpius at far right to Serpens at far left, with the bright Sagittarius Starcloud near the direction of the galactic centre at centre. The Milky Way here is populated by a rich collection of nebulas and star clusters, including - from right to left - the Cat’s Paw and NGC 6337 in the tail of Scorpius at right, the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas in Sagittarius (left of centre), and the Swan and Eagle Nebulas in Serpens at far left. The Small Sagittarius Starcloud, M24, is at left, flanked above and below by the star clusters M23 and M25. The star clusters M6 and M7 are at right of centre in Scorpius, with M7 lost in the starclouds. The bright “clouds” are masses of stars. The dark regions are obscuring regions of interstellar dust hiding the more distant stars. The actual centre of the Galaxy near the centre of the frame is not visible here in this or any visible light image as it is hidden by dust. The nebulas at right in Scorpius are much redder as they are obscured by dark interstellar dust which absorbs the shorter blue wavelengths which add to the pink colours of the other nebulas which glow in red and blue wavelengths of hydrogen alpha and beta as well as cyan oxygen III wavelengths. The mosaic runs along the galactic equator. I present this as a horizontal landscape image with north to the left and south to the right. This is the way you generally see this area in the southern hemisphere. But in the northern hemisphere this region of sky is seen running vertically from south to north, so the mosaic should be turned 90° CW to match that view. However, I shot this from Australia, on April 13, 2016 on a near perfect night for astronomy. This is a mosaic of 6 segments, each segment being a stack of 4 x 3-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 135mm Canon L-Series telephoto lens, tracked on the AP 400 mount, and with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015. The original is 11,100 by 3,800 pixels.
A mosaic of the Milky Way around the centre of the Galaxy in Sagittarius and Scorpius. The view of the Milky Way extends from Scutum at left to Norma at right. Sagittarius is below centre; Scorpius is above centre. At top is bright reddish Mars just above Antares, while white Saturn appears left of yellow Antares. Corona Borealis is at bottom of the frame. The Milky Way is dotted with numerous bright nebulas and star clusters, many Messier objects. This is a mosaic of two panels, each a stack of 4 x 3-minute exposures with the 35mm lens at f/2.8 and the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, tracking on the AP 400 mount. Each panel also has an image shot through the Kenko Softon A filter, and layered in using Lighten blend mode to add the star glows. I shot this April 12, 2016 from Tibuc Cottage, Australia. Stacking and stitching in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw. The Milky Way was nearly overhead when I shot this.
The spectacular field of Messier 8 and 20 emission and reflection nebulas in Sagittarius, with M8, aka the Lagoon Nebula below, and M20, the Trifid Nebula, above, all set in the rich starfields of the Milky Way. The diffuse nebula left of M8 is NGC 6559. A globular cluster, NGC 6544, sits below and to the left (east) of M8. The Messier open cluster, M21, sits above M20. I shot this April 6, 2016 from the Tibuc Cottage at Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, using the 77mm Borg f/4 astrograph for a stack of 5 x 5-minute exposures with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600.
