The Winter Milky Way

 

The view from our Backyard last night. No Moon to dilute the starlight but hazy cloud moving in from the west was a problem when combined with a little light pollution. Image taken with an astro-modded 200d Canon DSLR and a Sigma EX zoom lens at f=11mm. 10x30sec exposures at ISO1600 were stacked and processed.

What a beautiful night, only marred by light intermittent cloud. Mars and Uranus are visible in this image. Other astronomical delights on show include:

• The constellations; Orion, Taurus, Canis Minor, Monoceros, Lepus, Aries and Gemini.
• The show piece stars; Betelgeuse, Rigel, Bellatrix, Saiph, Alnitak, Mintaka, Alnilam, Procyon, Castor, Pollux, Sirius and Aldebaran.
• The open star clusters; the Hyades and the Pleiades.
• Orion's Dagger and the Great Orion Molecular Cloud..

Apart from all that scientific stuff, it makes for a very pretty picture.