The region of sky around the South Celestial Pole, at left, and to the west at right. The two Magellanic Clouds are at centre, the Large one above and the Small Cloud below. The bright star Archernar is at top. At left is the southern Milky Way including Carina, Crux and Centaurus. The Carina Nebula is at upper left with the Southern Cross Below it and Alpha and Beta Centauri rising above the trees. The house is the Tibuc Gardens Cottage, my residence for my 2016 Australia astrophoto excursion. Yes, I left the light on! This is a stack of 5 x 1.5-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 15mm full-frame fish-eye lens and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 3200, with the ground coming from one of the tracked exposures to minimize trailing.
A single-image ultra-wide sweep of the southern Milky Way from Crux, the Southern Cross (at right) to Aquila (at far left) with the centre of the Galaxy in Sagittarius and Scorpius at centre of frame. The image takes in all of the legendary "Dark Emu" constellation of Australian aboriginal lore, with his head in the Coal Sak dark nebula t right, his neck in the dark rift running from Centaurus to Scorpius, and is body in the large glowing mass of stars and dark nebulas around the galactic core. His feet and tail are in the dark tendrils at left of frame. The faint vertical glow at left running from bottomt to top is the Zodiacal Light and Zodiacal Band. This was taken at about 4 a.m. local time in the pre-dawn sky with the Milky Way high in the east and to the south. Saturn in Libra is at upper left of centre. This is a stack of 7 x 5 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 14mm lens on the Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 1600. An 8th image taken at the end of the sequence when the lens was fogged with dew was layered in to add the star glows.
The southern Milky Way from Vela (at right) to Centaurus (at left), with the False Cross at left, the trus Southern Cross at right of centre, and Alpha and Beta Centauri at left. The star cluster at lower right is NGC 2516. Omega Centauri is at upper left. The Coal Sack is left of the Southern Cross. This is a stack of 3 x 3 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 35mm Canon L-series prime lens, and filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800, plus an exposure taken through the Kenko Softon filter for the star glows. Taken from Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, April 2014.
