Image 1 of 1
Sagittarius to Scutum Milky Way (85mm Ra).jpg
This frames the rich collection of starclouds and nebulas along the Milky Way from northern Sagittarius, at bottom, to Scutum, at top. It includes two prominent star clouds: the Small Sagittarius Starcloud, aka Messier 24, at bottom and the Scutum Starcloud at top.
Flanking M24 are two large open star clusters: M23 at right and M25 at left. Above M24 are the two bright emission nebulas: M17 or the Swan Nebula and above it the Eagle Nebula, M16. Below M17 is a small star cluster M18. A fainter patch of nebulosity, Sharpless 2-54, sits above M16. A small star cluster, NGC 6649, is at centre in a dark lane and yellowed by dust. Below it is a small blue star and reflection nebula IC 1287. Another prominent star cluster, NGC 6645, is above M25 and left of M17.
At top, the Scutum Starcloud has two star clusters embedded in it: M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, at top, and the smaller M26 off the bottom edge of the star cloud. At the very bottom edge of the frame lies the globular cluster Messier 22. So there are 9 Messier objects in the field, with several others just outside the field off the bottom edge but in the trees from my site this night late in the season for this area. So it was not worth trying to include them as well.
This is a stack of 18 x 2-minute exposures with the rare Samyang RF85mm lens at f/2.8, on the Canon Ra camera at ISO 1000, and tracked on the Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from home on a very clear night Sept 10/11, 2023, to allow shooting this field low in my southern sky from my latitude of 51° N. The lens had a NISI Natural Night broadband light pollution reduction filter, to decrease gradients and boost contrast.
Flanking M24 are two large open star clusters: M23 at right and M25 at left. Above M24 are the two bright emission nebulas: M17 or the Swan Nebula and above it the Eagle Nebula, M16. Below M17 is a small star cluster M18. A fainter patch of nebulosity, Sharpless 2-54, sits above M16. A small star cluster, NGC 6649, is at centre in a dark lane and yellowed by dust. Below it is a small blue star and reflection nebula IC 1287. Another prominent star cluster, NGC 6645, is above M25 and left of M17.
At top, the Scutum Starcloud has two star clusters embedded in it: M11, the Wild Duck Cluster, at top, and the smaller M26 off the bottom edge of the star cloud. At the very bottom edge of the frame lies the globular cluster Messier 22. So there are 9 Messier objects in the field, with several others just outside the field off the bottom edge but in the trees from my site this night late in the season for this area. So it was not worth trying to include them as well.
This is a stack of 18 x 2-minute exposures with the rare Samyang RF85mm lens at f/2.8, on the Canon Ra camera at ISO 1000, and tracked on the Star Adventurer tracker. Taken from home on a very clear night Sept 10/11, 2023, to allow shooting this field low in my southern sky from my latitude of 51° N. The lens had a NISI Natural Night broadband light pollution reduction filter, to decrease gradients and boost contrast.
- Copyright
- © Alan Dyer/AmazingSky.com
- Image Size
- 4480x6720 / 28.5MB
- www.amazingsky.com
- Contained in galleries
- Messier Objects, The Milky Way, Various Constellations

