The northern summer Milky Way through the area of the Summer Triangle, showing the change in colour as the Milky Way heads south toward the dustier regions around the galactic core. Deneb in Cygnus is at top, Vega in Lyra is to the upper right, and Altair in Aquila is at bottom. The dark lanes of the Cygnus Rift show up well, beginning in Cygnus and splitting the Milky Way in two on south. The most prominent deep sky objects all visible in binoculars are: - the dark nebula complex Le Gentil 3, aka the Funnel Nebula, at top left - the reddish North America Nebula beside Deneb - and the Serpens-Ophiuchus “Double Cluster” at bottom right consisting of IC 4756 (larger, at left) and NGC 6633 (right), good binocular star clusters. This is a stack of 10 exposures, each 3 minutes at f/2.8 with the Sigma 24mm Art lens, and Nikon D750 at ISO 1600. Exposures Median combined to eliminate satellite trails. The camera is not filter modified. It was on the new Mini Track LX2 wind-up tracker as part of testing. Taken from home July 14, 2018.
The northern Milky Way of autumn, from Perseus (at left) to northern Cygnus (at right), with Cassiopeia and Cepheus at centre, captured in the red light of hydrogen-alpha revealing the rich array of nebulas along this portion of the Milky Way. The main nebulas are: At left the Heart and Soul Nebulas (IC 1805 and IC 1848); at centre the NGC 7822/Ced214 complex; at right the IC 1396 complex. This is a stack of 24 x 6-minute exposures with the Canon 28-70mm RF lens wide open at f/2 and Canon Ra camera at ISO 1600, with the 12nm Astronomik H-a clip-in filter. Taken on a very clear night with this area of sku high overhead, but with a bright 8-day gibbous Moon in the south lighting the sky. Taken from home on December 12, 2021.
This is a portrait of the main glowing nebulas amid star clusters in central Auriga, the Charioteer. The main nebula at right is the Flaming Star Nebula, aka IC 405. But in this long exposure its mass blends into the central roundish nebula, IC 410. At top left is the pair of Sharpless nebulas, Sh 2-232 and the small Sh 2-235. The fingerlike nebula at top centre is Sh 2-230. The star cluster just to its left is Messier 38, with the small cluster NGC 1907 just below M38. The star cluster at left centre is Messier 36. At centre frame is the nebula IC 417 around the cluster Stock 8. The line of colourful stars at lower right between IC 405 and IC 410 is the Little FIsh or Flying Minnow asterism, aka Mel 11. This is a stack of 11 x 12-minute exposures at ISO 3200 through an Optolong L-Enhance dual-band nebula filter, blended with a stack of 12 x 8-minute exposures without a filter (for more natural star colors and the blue reflection nebula in IC 405) at ISO 800. All with the Canon EOS Ra camera through the f/5 51mm William Optics RedCat astrograph with a Starizona filter drawer. Autoguiding was with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider which applied a dithering shift between each frame to help cancel out thermal noise when stacking. No darks or LENR were used here on this mild winter night at -5° C or so. All stacking, alignment and blending was in Adobe Photoshop 2021. Luminosity masks (DM2, D and M) applied with Lumenzia helped bring out the faint nebulosity.
