The summer constellations of Sagittarius and Scorpius skimming low across the south from my latitude of 51° N, above the trees from my backyard site in rural Alberta. In this version I added in labels for the major stars, constellations and the deep-sky objects that are easily visible in binoculars, if not to the naked eye. I also included a binocular field of view circle for scale. The M objects are from the Messier catalogue. Jupiter is the bright object right of centre; Saturn is left of centre. Altair is at upper left. A number of deep-sky objects show up, particularly the Messier nebulas and star clusters, as well as the Scutum Starcloud left of centre, and above it several large binocular open star clusters. The constellation of Ophiuchus is at right of centre occupying most of the frame. Aquila is at far left along the Milky Way. This is a stack of 4 x 1-minute tracked exposures with the Nikon D750 at ISO 1600 and Sigma 24mm lens at f/2.2, plus one of those exposures blended in for the ground to minimize its blurring. Another exposure taken through the Kenko Softon A filter was blended in to add the star glows, though light cloud this night added some glows naturally.
Stack of three 6-minute exposures at f/6 with 5-inch Astro-Physics apo refractor with 6x7 field flattener for cleaner edge performance. ISO 400 and about -5°C ambient temperature. Each image averaged stacked. Dark frame subtracted for each frame in camera with Canon LENR. Taken January 27/28, 2006.
Mars (at top) and Saturn (at left) in Scorpius (or thereabouts - Saturn is technically in Ophiuchus) above Antares and the dark and reflection nebulas around Antares. The globular M4 is visible to the right of Antares. This is a stack of 4 x 3 minute exposures with the 135mm telephoto lens at f/2.8 and filter-modified Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600, shot April 14, 2016 from Tibuc Cottage, Australia.
