Southern Skies Star Party of 2011

Photo Gallery

Although the night sky visible from the Northern Hemisphere holds many wonderous sights, the Southern Hemisphere heavens contain astonishing objects and vistas that can only be seen from dark skies south of the Equator.

The Southern Skies Star Party (SSSP) is an annual event that brings amateur astronomers to the Southern Hemisphere where they can observe and photograph some of the greatest treasures of the night sky. The event is held during New Moon around the Summer Solstice each year. Located on the shore of Lake Titicaca at an altitude of 12,300 feet, Bolivia's Inca Utama Resort hosts the SSSP. The hotel features a roll-off roof observatory with 22" and two 10" telescopes for visiting astronomers to use. AC and battery power are provided to those who bring their own equipment. And the hotel dining room is open all night to warm up and have a hot cup of coffee.

Since the first SSSP in 1996, I have traveled to this event a number of times. Most recently, I attended the SSSP in June 2011 and spent a week imaging the night sky using a portable astronomical mount (Celestron CG-5), a Canon EOS 550D (Rebel T2i), and a bag of Nikkor prime lenses. The images below are the result of this trip.

Click on each thumbnail below to see a larger image and description.


Deep Sky Objects

IC2391-01
IC 2391 (C85)
Omicron Vel Cluster

IC2602-01
IC 2602 (C102)
Theta Car Cluster

IC2944-01
IC 2944
Lambda Centauri Nebula

NGC2516-01
NGC 2516 (C96)
open cluster

NGC3372-02
NGC 3372 (C92)
Eta Carinae Nebula

NGC3372-03
NGC 3372 (C92)
Eta Carinae Nebula

NGC3532-01
NGC 3532 (C91)
open cluster

NGC4755-01
NGC 4755 (C94)
Jewel Box

NGC5822-01
NGC 5822
open cluster

NGC104-01
NGC 104 (C106)
47 Tucanae

NGC5139-02
NGC 5139 (C80)
Omega Centauri

NGC5139-03
NGC 5139 (C80)
Omega Centauri

SS105-19_20
Coalsack (C99)
dark nebula

SMC-02
Small Magellanic Cloud
SMC

LMC-02
Large Magellanic Cloud
LMC

Southern Constellations

Sgr-01
Sagittarius
The Archer

Sco-01
Scorpius
The Scorpion


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