Stargazing under Southern Skies

Stargazing with my family is always a fun experience, and during our recent Namibia vacation, I had the great pleasure of introducing them to the wonders of the southern hemisphere sky.

 

Northern hemisphere dwellers are probably familiar with the constellations and nebulae in the upper part of the image, including the famous Dark Horse and Rho Ophichui. The Lobster, Cat's Paw, and Prawn Nebulae may also still be known to those not living too far north.

 

The next bright red hydrogen emission nebula, however, was a new one for me. NGC6188. Even though it was discovered by John Herschel in 1836, it never rises above the horizon in my home country, Switzerland.

 

Following the dust lanes of the Milky Way band further south, leads to the bright stars Rigil and Hadar (Alpha and Beta Centauri) and eventually to a very dark and dusty area, called the Coalsack.

 

To the lower right of the Coalsack lies the famous constellation Crux, the Southern Cross. South of the Southern Cross are two more prominent red nebulae, IC 2948, the 'Running Chicken Neblua', and NGC 3372, the bright 'Eta Carinae Nebula', one of the largest diffuse nebulae in our skies. Although it is four times as large as and even brighter than the famous Orion Nebula, the Carina Nebula is much less well known due to its location in the southern sky.

 

I conclude this little tour with the open star cluster IC 2602, the 'Southern Pleiades' near on the upper left edge of the Eta Carinae Nebula.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

 

Sky:

10 x 90s @ ISO1600, unfiltered & 4 x 180s @ ISO6400, filtered

 

Foreground:

Single exposure of 1s @ ISO100 during blue hour.

Done