A mosaic panorama of the rich Galactic Centre region of the Milky Way in Scorpius and Sagittarius, from Messier 16, at left, to the False Comet region, at right. This is the most spectacular region of sky, with its dense bright star clouds contrasting with the swirls of dark dusty nebulas. The region includes the Lagoon Nebula, left of centre, and the Cat’s Paw Nebula, right of centre, and the large Pipe Nebula, at top centre. The actual centre of the Milky Way lies at the centre of the frame, though thr true centre is out of sight hidden by dust clouds. This is a mosaic of 3 segments, each 5 x 2-minute exposures with the Rokinon 85mm lens at f/2.8 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2500. Tracked on the iOptron Sky Tracker. Shot from Tibuc Gardens Cottage at Coonabarabran, Australia, April 2017.
Gamma Arietis, aka Mesarthim, a double star in Aries (below) with the star Sheratan (Beta Arietis) at top. The galaxy NGC 772 is at lower left. This is a stack of 4 x 4 minute exposures with the TMB 92mm apo refractor at f/4.4 with the 0.85x Borg field flattener/reducer and Canon 6D at ISO 800.
A portrait of the complex of emission nebulas in central Cygnus near the bright star Gamma Cygni (at left). The field includes the IC 1318 complex around Gamma Cygni itself and the Wolf-Rayet arc of nebulosity, NGC 6888, aka the Crescent Nebula, at right. The sparse star cluster Messier 29 is at bottom. This was through the SharpStar 94mm apo refractor at f/4.4 and with the Canon EOS Ra. It is a blend of 6 x 6-minute exposures at ISO 1600 through an Astronomik UV-IR-Cut filter for the base image, and a stack of 4 x 12-minutes at ISO 3200 through IDAS NB1 and Optolong L-eNhance filters for the enhanced red nebulosity, plus 6 x 12-minutes at ISO 3200 through Optolong L-eXtreme and IDAS NBZ filters which contribute only the enhanced cyan OIII emission, all taken as part of testing the filters. Normally, using four filters would not be required! Autoguided and dithered on this warm summer night with the Lacerta MGEN3 autoguider. No darks or LENR applied as the dithering effectively eliminated the thermal noise speckling which was prominent on the individual sub-frames. Taken from home August 13, 2021. All stacked, aligned, and blended in Photoshop.
