Cr399 Coathanger Cluster or Brocchi's Cluster, with 135mm Canon L-lens at f/2.8 and Canon 20Da camera at ISO 800 for stack of 4 x 3 minute exposures. Taken Sept. 8, 2007; contains NGC 6802 cluster; Glow layer added to emphasize stars.
The waxing crescent Moon in the Hyades star cluster and below reddish Aldebaran in Taurus, on April 18, 2018. Light cloud so often present at such events added the colourful lunar “corona” around the bright crescent, while sunlight reflected off the Earth added the glow of Earthshine to the dark side of the Moon, making it visible. All are set in the deep blue of late evening twilight. There was an occultation of Aldebaran this night but not from my location in Alberta. It was visible from locations far to the north and west in Canada and Russia. This is a 7-exposure stack of images from 1/5-second to 3.2-seconds, bracketed at 2/3-stop intervals, blended with luminosity masks. I neglected to take even shorter exposures for the properly exposed crescent itself. Alas! On the other hand, the overexposed bright crescent goes with the colourful corona, as the bright crescent is its source. All with the 200mm telephoto at f/2.8 and Canon 6D MkII at ISO 400, and tracked on the Sky Watcher Mini tracker.
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.
