2019 July 31 ~ The Milky Way in the constellation Cygnus

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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 23.30 and 23.56 EDT

(285 km by road north of Toronto)

* Altitude of Cygnus at time of exposures: 70-75°

* Temperature 19° C.

 

* Total exposure time: 12 minutes

* 50 mm focal length lens

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Description:

 

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, runs through the constellation Cygnus (the Swan) in the northern hemisphere summer sky. Dense clouds of stars are obscured in places by winding lanes of dark foreground gas.

 

The bright stars of Cygnus form the distinctively-shaped "Northern Cross"; you can see the star pattern in the labelled version of this image by clicking on the RIGHT side of your screen, or by clicking here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/48484720741

 

One of the largest and most obvious red hydrogen gas clouds is the aptly named "North America Nebula", left of and a little above centre. For a close-up view of this nebula made with a 400 mm lens, click here:

www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/19933485213

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Technical information:

 

Sigma 50 mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head

 

Six stacked frames; each frame:

50 mm focal length

ISO 2000; 2 minutes exposure at f/4; unguided

(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)

 

Subframes registered in RegiStar;

Stacked and processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, levels, colour balance, colour desaturation)

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Done