Scorpius rising over a telescope and observers at the annual OzSky Star Party in Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia on April 5, 2016.

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Scorpius rising over a telescope and observers at the annual OzSky Star Party in Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia on April 5, 2016. Mars is the bright reddish object outshining Antares and to the left of Antares. Saturn is below Mars above the trees. This is a stack of 2 x 2 minute exposures at with the 35mm lens, both tracked on the iOptron Sky Tracker, plus a blend of another 2 minute exposure through the Kenko Softon A filter to add the star glows, plus a 2-minute untracked exposure for the sharp foreground illuminated only by starlight. All with the Canon 5D MkII at ISO 1600. The camera and mount were set and polar aligned at this location for a 360° panorama and the difficulty of polar aligning down under prevented me from choosing a location with a better composition and foreground for this image. You don’t just grab the tripod and tracker to move it where you want and quickly re-align as in the north.

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Size: 5400px × 3545px
Location: OzSky Star Party, Coonabarabran, New South Wales, Australia
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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