All of Scorpius, plus parts of Lupus and Ara regions of the southern Milky Way. This area was directly overhead when I took this at about 4:30 am local time on April 6, 2014 from near Coonabarabran, Australia. The head of Scorpius is at top his tail at bottom though you could turn this image any direction and it would be correct as seen in the sky at this latitude, depending on the time of night. But in portrait mode like this north is at top. Along the Milky Way are numerous nebulas, including the False Comet area, the Cat's Paw area, and the colourful nebulas around Antares at top. The dark Pipe Nebula is at left of frame. This is a stack of 4 x 6 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Sigma 50mm lens on the filter-modiifed Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. An additional exposure with the Kenko Softon filter was layered in to add the star glows.
A "deepscape" image of the head of Scorpius with the colourful Rho Ophiuchi nebula complex culminating over the icy peak of Mount Custer in Montana, as taken from the north shore of Cameron Lake in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. Antares is the yellow star, with the globular cluster Messier 4 just to the right. The mountain is lit only by starlight. This is from latitude 49° N so this area of sky is low in the south and just clears this mountain even with Scorpius at its highest, which it was here. This is a blend of tracked and untracked exposures: 4 x 1-minute tracked at ISO 3200 for the sky plus a single 4-minute untracked exposure at ISO 800 for the ground, all with the Samyang 85mm AF lens at f/2.8 on the Canon Ra camera, and on the Move-Shoot-Move MSM tracker, polar aligned with the laser. Out of the 8 tracked shots I took for the set, half were unacceptably trailed. Taken on a very clear night June 2, 2021 with the tracked shots taken after the untracked image. That's a mistake with the MSM as it can take 2 or 3 minutes for the gears to re-engage and start tracking, wasting those shots and valuable time.
The Scutum starcloud in the northern summer Milky Way. Taken from home July 24, 2012, with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 800 and 200mm lens at f/3.5 for a stack of 5 x 4.5 minute exposures. Messier 11, the Wild Duck Cluster, is at left, and M26 open cluster is at bottom.
