The Entire Milky Way

Horizon to Horizon at Belmont Ranch

Uploaded 7/11/06

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 During our recent trip to Queensland Australia to visit with our good friend Paul Tierney, we had many opportunities in the superb skies found deep in the Outback for both imaging and visual observing. While at our darkest site near Winton, the full Milky Way was photographed with the robotic barn door mount using multiple exposures and the 17-40mm L lens set for widest field. The image presented here is the final panorama, extending from the roof of the sheep shearers quarters on the left, to the distant horizon with a few trees on the right.

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Image Details:

The center of our galaxy in Sagittarius passes through the zenith from this location, which is the brightest part in the center. The dark rifts that appear in front of the galactic plane are unilluminated dust, which blocks the stars behind and are tinted a dull brown in color. I wont try to list all the deep sky objects you can find in this image, but the Coal sack and Eta Carina are on the right side above the horizon, to the right of center is the dark constellation of the Emu. The full extent of the "Dark Horse" nebula is just above center. You can see a bright pink spot to the left of center, thats M8 - the Lagoon Nebula. The richness of the Milky Way diminishes slightly on the left side, into Aquilla and the left edge is Cygnus. Look carefully at the lower left corner, and you can see all of Delphinus.

Instrument: Canon 17 - 40mm L @ 17mm stopped to f/4.5 Platform: Robotic Barn Door Camera: Canon 10D @ ISO800 Exposure: 10m x 4 Filters: UV Location: Near Winton, Queensland, Australia Elevation: 700 ft. Sky: Seeing 9/10, Transparency 10/10 Outside Temperature: 50F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS, Maxim DL, PixInsight, Pixmantec RAW HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS FastCounter by bCentral