This is the rich Eta Carinae Nebula area of the southern Milky Way, with the main nebula surrounded by a variety of open star clusters: NGC 3532 the Football Cluster, IC 2602 the Southern Pleiades, NGC 3293 the Gem Cluster. This is a stack of 4 x 3 minute exposures at f/2.8 with 135mm telephoto lens and Canon MkII camera at ISO 800. Two of the frames had some haze from passing clouds, which added natural star glows. No filter used here. The field simulates the field of view of binoculars.
The asterism of the False Cross in Vela and Carina, at left, with Gamma Velorum, a bright blue supergiant star, at right. In between are faint arcs of nebulosity in the Gum Nebula. To the left of Gamma Velorum is the open star clister NGC 2547. Below the bottom star of the False Cross, Epsilon Carinae or Avior, is the large naked-eye star cluster NGC 2516. To the right of the right star of the False Cross, Delta Velorum, is the loose open cluster IC 2391. This is a stack of 5 x 2.5-minute exposures with the 85mm Rokinon lens at f/2 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2000, plus one exposure layered in taken through a Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows. On the iOptron Sky-Tracker, from Tibuc Gardens Cottage at Coonabarabran, Australia.
The dark nebula on the Cygnus-Cepheus border nicknamed the Funnel Cloud Nebula (a name provided by Alan Whitman in a 2006 Sky and Telescope article) but that is a very prominent naked eye feature to the northern Milky Way, more obvious as a dark area than the Northern Coal Sack to the south. This is a fine object for binoculars and the telephoto lens shot here provides the field of most binoculars. It is also known as Le Gentil 3, from the 18th century French astronomer, and also LDN 1003 and 1029. It resembles a dark tornado with a large mass of dark nebulosity at top emerging from a narrow neck below. This is a stack of 6 x 2-minute exposures with the Canon 200mm lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800. Taken May 28, 2019 on a not very transparent night.
