The summer constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpius skimming low across the south from my latitude of 51° N, above the trees from my backyard site in rural Alberta. In this version I added in labels for the major stars, constellations and the deep-sky objects that are easily visible in binoculars, if not to the naked eye. I also included a binocular field of view circle for scale. The M objects are from the Messier catalogue. Jupiter is the bright object right of centre; Saturn is left of centre. Altair is at upper left. A number of deep-sky objects show up, particularly the Messier nebulas and star clusters, as well as the Scutum Starcloud left of centre, and above it several large binocular open star clusters. The constellation of Ophiuchus is at right of centre occupying most of the frame. Aquila is at far left along the Milky Way. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 and Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.2, plus one of those exposures blended in for the ground to minimize its blurring. Another exposure taken through the Kenko Softon A filter was blended in to add the star glows, though light cloud this night added some glows naturally.
Scutum starcloud with M11 Wild Duck Cluster at top, open cluster Messier 26 at bottom right, and NGC 6712 globular cluster at bottom left, with small green object being the planetary nebula IC 1295. The red star in the centre is S Scuti. Taken Aug 1, 2011 from home with Borg 77mm f/4 astropgraphic apo refractor, and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800 for stack of 3 x 10 minute exposures. An IDAS V3 deep-sky filter was employed which likely discolored the overall tint.
This is the bright region of the Milky Way known as the Scutum Starcloud, in the constellation of Scutum the Shield. The bright Messier star cluster. M11, aka the Wild Duck Cluster, is embedded in the starcloud at left. This is a wonderful area to scan with binoculars and this field of view with the little RedCat astrograph is similar to what binoculars would show. The mass of dark dusty nebulosity at top is Barnard 111 and B110. The dark nebula at right is B103. The smaller Messier open star cluster M26 is at bottom. At lower left is the small globular cluster NGC 6712 with the tiny (on this scale) cyan-colored planetary nebula IC 1295 beside it at left. At lower right beside the orange star Alpha Scuti is the star cluster NGC 6664 with smaller Trumpler 34 to the left of NGC 6624. Above M11 is the small open cluster NGC 6704. This is a stack of 6 x 6-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/5 and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 with LENR on as it was the warmest night of the summer, August 18, 2020. Aligned, stacked and median combined in Photoshop to eliminate some satellite trails. Autoguided with the ZWO ASIAir and ASI120MM guide camera with the RedCat on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. No filters employed here.
