The tail of Scorpius, photographed with it high in the sky from Australia. The frame is oriented with the Milky Way running horizontally and the hook of the tail vertically. At right are the clusters and nebulas of the False Comet area around NGC 6124. At left are the red nebulas of NGC 6334, the Cat’s Paw, and NGC 6357 (sometimes called the Lobster Nebula, for a “Paws and Claws” pairing). The cluster NGC 6124 is at right. This is a stack of 4 x 2-minute exposures at f/2.8 with the Rokinon 85mm lens, and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 2500. Taken from Tibuc Gardens Cottage near Coonabarabran, Australia.
A collage of the northern hemisphere winter sky, with a background mosaic of the sky, surrounded by telephoto lens close-ups of starfields in that sky, each containing bright star clusters and nebulas along and around the Milky Way. The star clusters are all bright and obvious in binoculars, if not to the naked eye, but the nebulas are all faint and show up only in long exposure photos. The exception is the bright Orion Nebula at lower right – it can be seen with the naked eye and is glorious in a telescope. The background mosaic is made of 8 segments, in two columns of 4 rows, with generous overlap. Each segment was made of 4 x 2.5-minute exposures stacked with mean combine stack mode to reduce noise, plus 2 x 2.5-minute exposures taken through the Kenko Softon filter layered in with Lighten belnd mode to add the star glows. Each segment was shot at f/2.8 with the original 35mm Canon L-series lens and the filter-modified (by Hutech) Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, riding on the iOptron Sky-Tracker. All stacking and stitching in Photoshop CC 2015. The soft diffusion filter helps bring out the star colours in this area of sky rich in brilliant giant stars. I shot the segments on a very clear night on December 5, 2015 from the Quailway Cottage at Portal, Arizona. The close-ups are each stacks of 3-minute exposures with a 200mm f/2.8 telephoto lens and the filter-modified Canon 5D Mark II at ISO 800. Taken in January 2019 from home, using a Fornax Lightrack II tracker.
An ultrawide angle image of the southern Milky Way, taken from Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, December 13/14, 2012, using an 15mm Canon full-frame fish-eye lens and Canon 5D MkII camera for a stack of 4 x 6 minute exposures at f/4 and ISO 800. Jupiter is at top left, Orion to the right of Jupiter. Sirius is left of centre, the large Gum Nebula is at centre, while the Carina Nebula, Crux and the Pointer stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri, are rising at lower right. The Magellanic Clouds are at upper right. Some high altitude haze added glows around bright stars.
