Latest Images of the Night Skies

We finally had a good night for astrophotography on July 1, 2008. I went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway with my imaging gear and started shooting. I ended up with about 4 hours of exposures. Below, I have put together some examples of what I shot the other night. With each image, I will list the gear I used to make the shot, as well as the exposure totals.

The Image above is a wide field shot of the Milky Way. The bright star above the trees is not a star. That is our neighbor planet, Jupiter.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Tamron 11-18MM f4.5 Lens, set at 11MM f4.5 - ISO 800
12 Minutes of exposure (6x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Sagittarius. There are two bright nebulae in this image, and one fainter nebula. The larger, bright nebula on the right is Messier 8 (M8) (NGC 6523), the Lagoon Nebula. The smaller, bright nebula is Messier 20 (M20) (NGC 6514), The Trifid Nebula. Above M8, and slightly to the right, near the top of this image is a fainter star forming region designated NCG6559. These Nebulae are located along the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
28 Minutes of exposure (14x2 minutes)
AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking

The Image above is an area shot in the constellation, Ophiuchus. This area has very faint nebulosity, and it takes plenty of exposure to get the nebula to show in an image. The triple, "Mickey Mouse", looking star is Rho Ophiuchi. This is called the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. What is unusual about this area is the array of colors displayed in a relatively small area of the sky. This area can be found just above alpha Scorpii, Antares, the bright red star in the constellation, Scorpius.
Camera - Canon EOS 40D - Sigma 300MM f2.8 Lens, set at 300MM f2.8 - ISO 800
60 Minutes (1 Hour) of exposure (30x2 minutes)

AstroTrac TT320 Astrophotography mount for tracking