photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Andy | all galleries >> Deep sky astrophotos >> Dark gecko on starry sand > Dark gecko on starry sand
previous | next
29-May-16 Andy Casely

Dark gecko on starry sand

Loftus, NSW

Who's the little critter scuttling across the sand? The small dark dust cloud of Barnard 86 hovers in front of thousands of stars in this view towards the Galactic Centre, one of the richest concentrations of stars in the sky. Next to it, and also in front of the yellowish star cloud, is blue open cluster NGC6520. B86 is a Bok globule also known as the Inkspot, a cold dark dust cloud that's probably the remains of the birthplace of NGC6520 and may still be birthing new stars.

See if you can spot two faint globular clusters almost lost amongst the myriad stars, Djorgovski 2 on the left and NGC6540 (Djorgovski 3) on the right. Djorgovski 2 was apparently only discovered in 1987!

Canon EOS 60D
26 x 5 minutes (2hr 10min), ISO800, EOS 60D, darks, flats and bias subtracted. 200mm f/5 Newtonian on HEQ5 pro mount, OAG & StarShoot Autoguider. Stacked and processed in PixInsight and Photoshop. full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
previous | next
share
Type your message and click Add Comment
It is best to login or register first but you may post as a guest.
Enter an optional name and contact email address. Name
Name Email
help private comment