The spectacular area of the southern Milky Way from the Eta Carinae Nebula at right, to the Southern Cross at centre, and the twin stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri, the Pointers, at left. Omega Centauri is at top left; and the Dark Doodad dark nebula is at bottom centre. The Coal Sack is to the left of the Southern Cross, Crux. This is a stack of 4 x 6 minute exposures at f/4 with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. A stack of 2 x 6 minute exposures was added in taken through the Kenko Softon filter to add the star glows. Taken from Atacama Lodge, Chile, May 2011.
The spectacular area of the southern Milky Way from the Southern Cross at left to the Eta Carinae Nebula at centre, and the stars of the False Cross at right. The Coal Sack is to the left of the Southern Cross, Crux. This is a stack of 4 x 6 minute exposures at f/4 with the 50mm Sigma lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800. A stack of 2 x 6 minute exposures was added in taken through the Kenko Softon filter to add the star glows. Taken from Atacama Lodge, Chile, May 2011.
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.