A collage of the northern hemisphere winter sky, with a background mosaic of the sky, surrounded by telephoto lens close-ups of starfields in that sky, each containing bright star clusters and nebulas along and around the Milky Way. The star clusters are all bright and obvious in binoculars, if not to the naked eye, but the nebulas are all faint and show up only in long exposure photos. The exception is the bright Orion Nebula at lower right – it can be seen with the naked eye and is glorious in a telescope. The background mosaic is made of 8 segments, in two columns of 4 rows, with generous overlap. Each segment was made of 4 x 2.5-minute exposures stacked with mean combine stack mode to reduce noise, plus 2 x 2.5-minute exposures taken through the Kenko Softon filter layered in with Lighten belnd mode to add the star glows. Each segment was shot at f/2.8 with the original 35mm Canon L-series lens and the filter-modified (by Hutech) Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, riding on the iOptron Sky-Tracker. All stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015. The soft diffusion filter helps bring out the star colours in this area of sky rich in brilliant giant stars. I shot the segments on a very clear night on December 5, 2015 from the Quailway Cottage at Portal, Arizona. The close-ups are each stacks of 3-minute exposures with a 200mm f/2.8 telephoto lens and the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. Taken in January 2019 from home, using a Fornax Lightrack II tracker.
A trio of open star clusters in Norma and Triangulm Australe: NGC 6067 at upper left in Norma (aka the S Normae Cluster) and embedded in the Norma Star Cloud; NGC 6087 below centre in Norma; and NGC 6025, the Spiral Cluster in TrA. The field simulates a binocular field of view. All are binocular objects. A stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures with the 20mm telephoto at f/2.8 and Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2500. Tracked on the AP 400 mount. Shot from Coonabarabran, Australia.
The supernova remnant in Cygnus variously called the Veil Nebula, the Network Nebula, the Lacework Nebula, or the Cygnus Loop. Nearby is the bright and large star cluster NGC 6940 over the border in Vulpecula. It is obvious in binoculars but not often recorded in the same frame as the Veil. But the wide field of the little RedCat astrograph is ideal for framing such Milky Way starfields. This shows both the eastern and western halves of the Veil as well as the little bits in between such as prominent Pickering’s Triangle component. This is a stack of 7 exposures, each 8-minutes at f/4.9 with the William Optics RedCat 51mm scope, and the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 3200 and with the Optolong L-Enhance dual narrow-band filter in place for all exposures. It picks up the Hydrogen-Alpha reds and Oxygen III greens very well, but with little of the cyan tint usually associated with OIII visible in this case. The field is 8° by 5°. Encroaching dawn twilight prevented me taking a set of unfiltered images to blend in with these but they would not have been as essential for this field. Shot May 27/28, 2020 from home.
