Scorpius rising over a telescope and observers at the annual OzSky Star Party in Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia on April 5, 2016. Mars is the bright reddish object outshining Antares and to the left of Antares. Saturn is below Mars above the trees. This is a stack of 2 x 2 minute exposures at f/2.2 with the 35mm lens, both tracked on the iOptron Sky Tracker, plus a blend of another 2 minute exposure through the Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows, plus a 2-minute untracked exposure for the sharp foreground illuminated only by starlight. All with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. The camera and mount were set and polar aligned at this location for a 360° panorama and the difficulty of polar aligning down under prevented me from choosing a location with a better composition and foreground for this image. You don’t just grab the tripod and tracker to move it where you want and quickly re-align as in the north.
The Scutum Starcloud (at top) in the Milky Way, with the Milky Way also bright to the south in Serpens. The nebulas M16 and M17 are at the bottom of the field. The bright star cluster M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, is at the top on the northern edge of the Scutum Starcloud. The area is rife with dark nebulas and dust lanes. This is a stack of 6 x 3-minute exposures with the 85mm Rokinon lens at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 800 plus an additional exposure taken through the Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows. Tracked on the Star Adventurer tracker which tracked very well through all the exposures.
Scutum star cloud with M11 at top and M26 at bottom. Taken with Canon 20Da camera at ISO 400 and Canon 200mm L Lens at f/4 and for 6 minutes. Stack of four exposures. Taken from Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, July 2006.
