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Summer Milky Way Arch at Cowcowing Lakes, Western Australia

Nikon d810a

50mm

ISO 6400

f/2.8

Foreground: 20 x 30 seconds

Sky: 58 x 30 seconds

iOptron SkyTracker

Hoya Red Intensifier filter

 

This is a 78 shot panorama of the non-core region of the Milky Way, visible over the summer months in the Southern Hemisphere, as it arches over the dry salt surface of a peripheral lake in the Cowcowing Lakes system, 2.5 hours north east of Perth in Western Australia.

 

I was hoping for a patchwork of pressure ridges, similar to what you would see in Death Valley or the Bolivian Salt Flats but the surface was mostly flat, with long lines of quite large ridges across the surface. You can see me in the distance at the intersecting lines of two ridges.

 

Prominent in this image is the Large Magellanic Cloud in the top right corner. Diagonally left is the pink Carina Nebula, just above Crux aka the Southern Cross. The large red region a little further up is the H-Alpha emitting Gum Nebula. On the left is Orion and Barnard's Loop with the California Nebula just visible behind the airglow above the horizon.

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Uploaded on March 13, 2023
Taken on February 18, 2023