A closeup of the most interesting region of the SMC, the Small Magellanic Cloud, showing the prominent emission nebula NGC 346 (above centre) and nearby clusters, gthe globular NGC 330 below and the open clusters NGC 371 (with associated cyan nebulosity) and NGC 395 (also with pink nebulosity) above. This is a stack of 8 x 10 minute exposures at ISO 640 with Canon 5D MkII and 105mm Astro-Physics Traveler apo refractor. However, several exposures had cloud through some of the time and so were not fully exposed for the full 10 minutes. I kept the system tracking thru out regardless. Taken from Timor Cottage, Cooonabarabran, Australia, December 10, 2012.
This is an impressive area of sky rich in bright and dark nebulas and open star clusters in Sagittarius and Serpens. This is closeup of the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka Messier 24, at bottom right, with the field extending north to include the nebulas M17, the Swan Nebula, and M16 at top right, the Eagle Nebula. Between M17 and M24 is the small star cluster M18. Patches of red and blue nebulosity at bottom right below M24 are IC 1283 and the blue reflection nebulas NGC 6589 and 6590. The prominent dark nebula at the right (west) edge of the Starcloud is Barnard 92 with its lone star embedded in it, with smaller B93 above it. At the left are the star clusters M25 (bottom) and NGC 6645, with the large dark nebula B312 above. This is a stack of 3 x 6-minute exposures with the William Optics RedCat 51mm astrograph at f/5 and the Canon EOS Ra at ISO 800 with LENR on as it was the warmest night of the summer, August 17, 2020. Aligned, stacked and mean combined in Photoshop. Autoguided with the ZWO ASIAir and ASI120MM guide camera with the RedCat on the Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. No filters employed here. Clouds thwarted more exposures.
A mosaic of the rich region in Sagittarius and southern Serpens, from the Small Sagittarius Starcloud (Messier 24) at bottom to Messier 16, the Eagle Nebula, at top, with a fainter nebula above it around the cluster NGC 6604. At centre is the Swan or Omega Nebula, Messier 17. The dark nebula below centre is Barnard 92. The differences in the colours of the starclouds and nebulas is due to different amounts of intervening interstellar dust, with denser dust clouds absorbing more of the blues and making the objects appear redder or more yellow. This is a mosaic of two vertical segments, each segments a stack of 5 x 2-minute exposures with the 200mm lens at f/2.8 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Tracked on the AP 400 mount, unguided. From Tibuc Gardens Cottage.
