Center of Our Galaxy at Dusk
The photo below was obtained by "screen-stacking" five 8-sec exposures that produced an effective 40-sec exposure. On the lower-left quadrant of this photo where you see "milky patches", it shows the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. This region of the sky has lots of star clusters (notice tiny concentrated patches) and nebulae.

In addition to the Milky Way, there are the Sagittarius (tea-pot shape) constellation on the lower-left quadrant, the planet Mars (brightest red star-like) and the Scorpius constellation on the right-half. There is an red-orange colored star to the right of Mars, called "Antares". It is occasionally mistaken for Mars.

(move over the photo to see star chart)

To see more constellation photos
Camera: Canon G1 Digital Category: Astronomy
Condition: Outdoor at Night Ext. Light Source: None
Format: JPEG 2048 x 1537 (fine) F-Stop: 2.0
Speed: 8 sec Exposure Comp.: 0
ISO: 50 Metering Mode: Center-Weighted Ave.
White Balance Mode: Daylight Distance: Infinite
Focal Length: 7 mm Tripod: Yes
Filter: None Resized: Yes
Flash: None Editing Software: Photoshop 6
Corel Photo 9
Other: Employed "darkfield subtraction" and "screened-stacking" techniques to remove CCD noise and produce the effect of longer exposure, respectively.

As you can see even at ISO 50 and with noise reduction, the photo still looks grainy.

© 2001 by Arif. Email at arif06880@yahoo.com.