Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24) and Friends

 Download Full Resolution (1920x1266) 3917KB 6,804

Sagittarius Star Cloud (M24) and Friends

[Public Domain] 2 Oct 2014 Dylan O'Donnell
CATEGORY : Astrophotography
6,805 others viewed this post.

This intensely crowded area of our view near the core of our Milky Way galaxy is centred on the Sagittarius Star Cloud. Despite appearances, it’s not a cluster of stars at all. Our view of the “cloud” is actually a break in the dark dust bands that run through the Milky Way, creating a small clear “window” with which we can see this patch of stars clearly.

In this wide-field image the purple areas are the red emissions and blue reflections from various nebulas (Lagoon, Triffid, Omega & Eagle among others) and two actual clusters M23 and M25 are on the left and right respectively.

Dead centre you might be wondering what that little “black hole” is. It’s actually a dark nebula (B92) called the “Black Hole” Nebula – but it is most certainly not a black hole!

The faint green line running down from the top left is from earth .. it’s just a plane 😉

9 x 130s @ ISO 1600 / f6.3  + 5 darks & 1 flat frame.
Canon 70D 135mm 

 Download Full Resolution (1920x1266) 3917KB