A portrait of the northern autumn constellation of Cepheus the King. The large red nebula at the bottom (to the south) is IC 1396. Mu Cephei is the red star, aka the Garnet Star, on its edge. This is with the filter-modified Canon 5D MkII camera at ISO 1600 and Sigma 50mm lens at f/2.8 for a stack of 13 x 60- and 90-second exposures with the Star Adventurer tracker (median combined to help eliminate thin clouds drifting through), plus an exposure through the Kenko Softon A filter layered in for the star glows.
The Coal Sack and Jewel Box Cluster area on the east side of Crux, the Southern Cross. The Coal Sack, which to the eye looks like a large dark patch, under photography breaks up into small patches, the darkest just south of the Jewel Box Cluster, here just below and left of Becrux, or Beta Crucis. Other star clusters in the scene are NGC 4852 at top left, Trumpler 20 at right. and NGC 4609 at lower centre. The cluster at far right above Acrux is NGC 4349. The small intensely red area left of centre is the nebula Gum 46. The star at lower right is Acrux, Alpha Crucis. This is a stack of 5 x 8 minute exposures with the Borg 77mm astrographic apo refractor (330mm focal length) at f/4.3 and with the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. Taken from Coonabarabran, Australia, March 2014.
