A 3-panel mosaic of the Southern Cross, Crux, shot April 5, 2016 from Tibuc Cottage, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia. Acrux, Alpha Cruxis, is the star at bottom and Becrux, Beta Cruxis, is the star at left, with the Jewel Box Cluster, NGC 4755, just to the left of Becrux. Gacrux is at top and Delta Cruxis is at right. The star cluster NGC 4349 is above Alpha Cruxis. The bright red nebula in the dark Coal Sack is Gum 46. The rich cluster to the right of Becrux is Harvard 7. The dark nebulosity at lower left is the Coal Sack. The small cluster embedded in the Coal Sack to the left of Acrux is NGC 4609, what I call the Coal Dust Cluster. Slight haze or high cloud added the natural star glows here. This is a moasic of 3 panels, each a stack of 4 x 4-minute exposures with the Borg 77mm f/4 astrograph and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. Stacked and stitched in Photoshop.
The Milky Way through Carina and Crux, with the Carina Nebula at right and the Southern Cross at left, and the Coal Sack beside the Cross. The Dark Doodad dark nebula streak in Musca is at bottom. The field is filled with dark nebula patches and streaks. This is a stack of 4 x 5 minute exposures at f/2.8 with the 35mm lens and Canon 60Da at ISO 800, taken from Coonabarabran, Australia, March 2014. An additional exposure through a dewed up soft focus filter and layered in Photoshop adds the star glows.
The southern Milky Way from Alpha and Beta Centauri (at left) through Crux (at centre) to Carina (at right), taken from Atacama Lodge, Chile, March 2010, with Canon 5D MkII (modified) and Sigma 50mm lens at f/4 for panorama of two stacks of 5 x 4 minute exposures at ISO 800, plus 2 x 4 minutes with Kenko softon filter. Shows the head and neck of the "Dark Emu."
