A 3-panel mosaic of the Southern Cross, Crux, shot April 5, 2016 from Tibuc Cottage, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia. Acrux, Alpha Cruxis, is the star at bottom and Becrux, Beta Cruxis, is the star at left, with the Jewel Box Cluster, NGC 4755, just to the left of Becrux. Gacrux is at top and Delta Cruxis is at right. The star cluster NGC 4349 is above Alpha Cruxis. The bright red nebula in the dark Coal Sack is Gum 46. The rich cluster to the right of Becrux is Harvard 7. The dark nebulosity at lower left is the Coal Sack. The small cluster embedded in the Coal Sack to the left of Acrux is NGC 4609, what I call the Coal Dust Cluster. Slight haze or high cloud added the natural star glows here. This is a moasic of 3 panels, each a stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures with the Borg 77mm f/4 astrograph and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Stacked and stitched in Photoshop.
The Southern Cross framed with a 200mm telephoto lens. The scene includes the open star cluster, the Jewel Box (NGC 4755) at left of Beta Cruxis (aka Becrux) at left, and the dimmer star clusters NGC 4609 (left of Acrux at bottom), Trumpler 20 (right of Becrux) and NGC 4349 (above Acrux). Reddish Gacrux or Gamma Cruxis is at top of the Cross. The dark Coal Sack is at lower left. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures with the 200mm lens at f/2.8 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2500. Tracked on the AP400 mount,
The Milky Way through Carina and Crux, with the Carina Nebula at right and the Southern Cross at left, and the Coal Sack beside the Cross. The Dark Doodad dark nebula streak in Musca is at bottom. The field is filled with dark nebula patches and streaks. This is a stack of 4 x 5 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 35mm lens and Canon 60Da at ISO 800, taken from Coonabarabran, Australia, March 2014. An additional exposure through a dewed up soft focus filter and layered in Photoshop adds the star glows.
