Milky Way Mosaic - Sagittarius Through Cygnus
This mosaic shows the Milky Way through Sagittarius, Scutum, Aquila, Vulpecula, and Cygnus. The dark rift running down the center of the Milky Way is due to interstellar dust in the plane of our Galaxy. This section of the Milky Way is best seen during the summer and early fall, and can only be appreciated from a dark sky location.
The bright star near the top is Vega in the constellation Lyra. Together with Deneb (in Cygnus) and Altair (in Aquila), the three stars form the asterism known as the Summer Triangle.
For another view of the same region see Milky Way Above the Chiricahuas & Bifrost. The above image is made up of thee smaller mosaics: 1) Sagittarius Through Scutum, 2) Scutum Through Vulpecula and 3) Aquila Through Cygnus.
Technical Details
- Object: Milky Way Mosaic - Sagittarius Through Cygnus
- Date/Time: 2012 Jun 14 at 07:05 UTC
- Location: Bifrost Astronomical Observatory, Portal, AZ
- Mount: Losmandy G-11 German Equatorial Mount
- Lens: Nikkor AI 35mm f/2
- Camera: Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i)
- Exposure: 8-Frame Mosaic, each consisting of: 2 x 240s, f/2.8, ISO 800 and 120s, f/2.8, ISO 800 with Cokin A830 Diffusion Filter
- File Name: MilkyWayMos12-05w.jpg
- Processing (Adobe Camera Raw): Vignetting Correction, Noise Reduction, White Balance, Curves
- Processing (Photoshop CS5): Average Images, Curves, Opacity (with diffusion image)
- Processing (Autopano Pro): panoramic stitching software
- Original Image Size: 17200 × 5400 pixels (92.9 MP); 57.3" x 18.0" @ 300 dpi
- Rights: Copyright 2012 by Fred Espenak. All Rights Reserved. See: Image Licensing.
Milky Way Photo Galleries
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For more photographs of the Milky Way, please visit the following galleries: