The bright Cygnus Starcloud (at right) and collection of red emission nebulas in central Cygnus, including the North America Nebula (NGC 7000) at left near the bright star Deneb. The dark Northern Coalsack is to the right of the North America Nebula. The IC 1318 emission nebula complex is at centre. The star cluster NGC 6819, aka The Foxhead, is at far right. The cluster NGC 6866, aka The Kite, is to the left of 6819. At top right is the cluster NGC 6811. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm RF lens on the Canon EOS Ra camera at ISO 1600, and through the Kase Neutral Night broadband filter, with an additional exposure layered in taken through a Kase/Alyn Wallace StarGlow filter for the glows. Taken from the Alberta Star Party site on September 3, 2021, with the camera on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker. Stacked, aligned and blended in Photoshop. Luminosity mask adjustments applied with Lumenzia and Zone System Express v7.
A panoramic mosaic of bright starclouds and dark stardust in the rich region of the Milky Way around the centre of the Galaxy in Sagittarius. This panorama extends from the tail of Scorpius at far right to Serpens at far left, with the bright Sagittarius Starcloud near the direction of the galactic centre at centre. The Milky Way here is populated by a rich collection of nebulas and star clusters, including - from right to left - the Cat’s Paw and NGC 6337 in the tail of Scorpius at right, the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulas in Sagittarius (left of centre), and the Swan and Eagle Nebulas in Serpens at far left. The Small Sagittarius Starcloud, M24, is at left, flanked above and below by the star clusters M23 and M25. The star clusters M6 and M7 are at right of centre in Scorpius, with M7 lost in the starclouds. The bright “clouds” are masses of stars. The dark regions are obscuring regions of interstellar dust hiding the more distant stars. The actual centre of the Galaxy near the centre of the frame is not visible here in this or any visible light image as it is hidden by dust. The nebulas at right in Scorpius are much redder as they are obscured by dark interstellar dust which absorbs the shorter blue wavelengths which add to the pink colours of the other nebulas which glow in red and blue wavelengths of hydrogen alpha and beta as well as cyan oxygen III wavelengths. The mosaic runs along the galactic equator. I present this as a horizontal landscape image with north to the left and south to the right. This is the way you generally see this area in the southern hemisphere. But in the northern hemisphere this region of sky is seen running vertically from south to north, so the mosaic should be turned 90° CW to match that view. However, I shot this from Australia, on April 13, 2016 on a near perfect night for astronomy. This is a mosaic of 6 segments, each segment being a stack of 4 x 3-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 135mm Canon L-Series telephoto lens, tracked on the AP 400 mount, and with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015. The original is 11,100 by 3,800 pixels.
A panorama of the centre of the Galaxy portion of the southern hemisphere Milky Way, from Crux at right to Aquila at left. This was taken from Atacama Lodge near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, on May 2, 2011. It is a 6-segment mosaic, each segment being 4 x 6 minutes + 1 x 6 minutes with a Kenko Softon filter, all at f/4 and ISO 800 with the Canon 5D MkII and Canon L-series 35m lens. Note the sweep of bright blue stars from Scorpius to Orion but angled above then across and below the Milky Way — this is Gould's Belt of new hot stars near us.
