The Serpent of Eridanus [Explored]

In ancient Greek mythology, Phaethon, the son of Sun God Helios, begged his father to let him ride the sun chariot. Helios urged him to be cautious, but Phaeton lost control of the chariot and veered so wildly in different directions that both heaven and earth caught fire. Zeus brought an end to the ordeal, striking Phaethon with a thunderbolt, killing him instantly and having his smoldering body crash down into the river Eridanus.

 

There is no mention of a sea serpent living in Eridanus, but one can very well imagine such a creature roaming the waters of the mythological river at the end of the world.

 

My image is a tribute to the story above: The sea serpent of @ricardo.breceda_metal.artist in Borrego Springs can be seen under the extremely elusive, blood red Eridanus Loop, while the heavens on the left are on fire with the better known hydrogen nebulae of the Winter Milky Way and Orion. Jupiter, the Roman counterpart of Zeus, fittingly dominates the sky above the heavenly Eridanus, and the ghost of Phaethon makes a faint appearance in the form of the Gegenschein in the upper right corner of the image.

 

EXIF

Canon EOS-R, astro-modified

Sigma 28mm f/1.4 ART @ f/2

IDAS NBZ filter

iOptron SkyTracker Pro

 

Sky:

Panorama of 3 panels, each a stack of 10x 30s @ ISO800, unfiltered & 3x 90s @ ISO3200, filtered

 

Foreground:

Focus stack of 5x 1/4s @ ISO100 during blue hour

Done