The Milky Way through the Perseus to Auriga area, populated by clusters and nebulas of the next spiral arm out from ours, in the Perseus Arm. The Double Cluster is at right, with the Heart and Soul Nebulas above it, while the Auriga clusters and nebulas are at left. At bottom is the California Nebula and Messier 34 cluster. The Perseus OB Association of hot blue stars is at centre. Capella is the bright star at upper left. The Taurus Dark Clouds are at lower left. This is a stack of 8 x 3-minute exposures with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800. 4 shots were through the NISI Natural Night light pollution reduction filter and 4 were through the Hoya Red Enhancer filter, taken as part of testing. An additional exposure through the Kenko Softon filter adds the star glows. Taken from home on a very clear night, December 29, 2019 on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro.
The region in Serpens and Ophiuchus containing the Serpens-Ophiuchus (S-O) Double Cluster, here at top left, and the large binocular cluster IC 4655 above the cyan-tinted star Cebalrai, here at right. The S-O pair is made of IC 4756 (left) and NGC 6633 (right). Included near centre is the V-shaped asterism known as Taurus Poniatowski or the “Little Bull,” a group that resembles the Hyades in Taurus. The group was named for the King of Poland, Stanislaus Poniatowski in 1777 by Marcin Poczobutt. The constellation pattern was never accepted but the asterism, now in Ophiuchus, is a fine one for binoculars. This is a stack of 3 x 3-minute exposures with the 85mm Rokinon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D at ISO 800, plus an additional 3 min exposure through the Kenko Softon filter to add the star glows. Taken from home July 29, 2019. All tracked on the MSM SiFo Tracker from China as part of testing. At this focal length the little MSM tracker proved problematic as many frames were trailed. It was not reliable enough in its tracking to yield pinpoint stars in most shots.
The two large open star clusters straddling the Serpens-Ophiuchus border and thus called the S-O Double Cluster. They are IC 4756 at left, a very large and scattered group, and NGC 6633 at right, a more concentrated group. Both are best seen with binoculars, and the field of the 200mm telephoto lens used here simulates a binocular field of view. This is a stack of 6 x 2-minute exposures with the 200mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800.
