This frames the southern Milky Way from Canis Major and its bright star Sirius at top, to Carina and its bright star Canopus at bottom. Sirius and Can
This frames the southern Milky Way from Canis Major and its bright star Sirius at top, to Carina and its bright star Canopus at bottom. Sirius and Canopus are the first and second brightest stars in the night sky, respectively. The major feature here is the massive Gum Nebula, perhaps a remnant from a nearby (1500 light years away) but ancient supernova. Or it might be a more normal emission nebula created as part of star formation and stellar winds. Its 36º-wide extent sprawls across Puppis (just below Canis Major) and Vela (to the left of Canopus). It was discovered by Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum in 1952. Just below and left of centre is the region of the Vela Supernova Remnant, though its arcs are not obvious at this scale. At top above Sirius is the Seagull Nebula complex, IC 2177. Lots of star clusters populate this region of the Milky Way: - Messier 41 is below Sirius; - the Messier 46 and Messier 47 pair is at top; - near centre is the pairing of NGC 2477 and NGC 2451; - NGC 2516 is at bottom off the southernmost star of the False Cross. This is a stack of 40 x 2-minute exposures with the RF28-70mm lens at 32mm and on the Canon Ra at ISO 800. On the MSM Nomad star tracker. Processing a starless layer created with RC-Astro's StarXTerminator plug-in helped bring out the faint nebulosity independently of the background stars and Milky Way. The only filter employed here was a 95mm URTH Night broadband filter on the front of the lens to help enhance the contrast, but the sky at the Mirrabook Cottage near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia was very dark this March night in 2024.
Size: 4480px × 6720px
Photo credit: © Alan Dyer / VWPics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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