The trio of Messier galaxies, M98, M99, and M100 near the star 6 Comae Berenices along with fainter NGC galaxies. The face-on spiral M100 is at top right; the edge-on spiral M98 is at lower right; the face-on spiral M99, the Coma Pinwheel, is at bottom. The pair of galaxies to the left of M99 is NGC 4298 and NGC 4302. This is a stack of 7 x 5-minute exposures with the SharpStar HNT150 Hyperbolic Newtonian astrograph at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 800.
Jupiter (brightest), Saturn (to the left), and the Milky Way over the Saskatchewan River and the area of Howse Pass, on July 26, 2020. Mount Cephren is at left; the scene is framed to include Cephren. The nebulas and star clouds of the galactic centre area at right show up well on this very clear night. The bright Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka M24, is most obvious, flanked by the star clusters M23 and M25 to the side, and the nebulas M17 and M16 above, and M8 and M20 below. The fuzzy globular cluster M22 is to the left of the large Lagoon Nebula, M8. Green airglow tints the sky. This is an exposure blend of a stack of 4 x 2-minute untracked exposures for the ground at ISO 1600 (exposed long to bring out ground details), with 2 x 1-minute tracked and stacked exposures at ISO 3200 for the sky. Shot from the Howse Pass Viewpoint area off the Icefields Parkway at Saskatchewan River Crossing. The camera was on the iOptron SkyGuider Pro tracker. For the ground shots I simply turned the tracker motor off. All with the 35mm Canon lens at f/2.8 and Canon EOS Ra, a filter-modified camera. Topaz Sharpen AI applied to the ground; Topaz DeNoise AI applied to the sky. In camera LENR employed on all shots on this warm night. An Orton soft glow effect added to the sky with Luminar Flex plug-in.
The Milky Way through the region of the tail of Scorpius, photographed with it high in the sky from Australia. At bottom are the clusters and nebulas of the False Comet area around NGC 6124. Above and at centre are the red nebulas of NGC 6334, the Cat’s Paw, and NGC 6357 (sometimes called the Lobster Nebula, for a “Paws and Claws” pairing). The clusters Messier 6 and Messier 7 are at top left with M7 lost in the star clouds of the Milky Way. The Galactic Centre lies at top left. This is a stack of 5 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm lens, and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2500. Taken from Tibuc Gardens Cottage near Coonabarabran, Australia. The image could be turned 90° CCW to better resemble its orientation in the sky in which it was photographed in the southern hemisphere, This orientation matches the view in the northern hemisphere.
