Southern Stars over Palms

From Paul's Backyard in Caboolture, QLD, Australia

Uploaded 7/9/09

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 This is the first in a series of half a dozen shots I took on our first clear night while staying at our good friend Paul Tourney's home for a week. The moon was first quarter and the sky had a distinct bluish tint and was very bright from the moon and nearby Caboolture. None the less this image which is untracked on a simple tripod goes at least two magnitudes fainter than what we saw visually. And of course, few star colors were seen with the eye as well.

This image shows the two bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri over the treetop, with the Southern Cross and Eta Carina off to the right side of the tree top.

Lens: Sigma 18 - 200 @ f/5.6 Camera: Canon 10D @ ISO800 Mount: Camera Tripod Exposure: 30s Filters: None Location: Happy Jack, Arizona Elevation: 6800 ft. Sky: Seeing 7/10, Transparency 6/10 Outside Temperature: 50F Processing Tools: Photoshop CS2, Maxim DL, PixInsight, RawShooter Premium HOME GALAXIES EMISSION NEBS REFLECTION NEBS COMETS GLOBULARS OPEN CLUST PLANETARIES LINKS