Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

f4fotografy OP t1_j1gtpra wrote

Just a little red and green for christmas (and the Coal Sack).

[Annotated version with POIs on my profile as this sub doesn't allow galleries]

90% of the world's population live in the Northern Hemisphere and cannot see the South Celestial Pole. Down here at -37 degrees lattitude the Magellanic Clouds and the Carina region of the Milky Way never set below the horizon so we have "Galaxy Season" all year 'round.

The layers of green are caused by "Airglow", from the atmospheric molecules which absorb UV radiation all day and glow faintly green as they cool down at night.

The red is from "Diffuse Aurora", caused by high energy charged particles of solar wind being deflected by the Earth's magnetic field towards the poles and slamming into the atmosphere so hard they glow red and green (and sometimes purple) like tiny atomic meteors.

The dark region called the Coal Sack is actually a clump of cold gas and stardust blocking out the light from the stars behind similar to the "Dark Doodad" which is made of the same stuff but has a much funnier name.

The Magellanic Clouds are "Dwarf Galaxies" orbiting outside the Milky Way, they're much smaller than Andromeda but much closer.

The 47 Tuc cluster is the second brightest star cluster and contains more stars within it than can be seen from earth with the naked eye (around 10,000).

The Omega Centauri cluster contains around 10,000,000 stars and looks like a bright fuzzy star to the naked eye.

Sony A7III Tamron 17-28 17mm f/2.8 ISO5000 10"

11

Cyberfury t1_j1hpnm4 wrote

There is no way one doo-doos on the Dark Doodad like that and gets a away with it. ;;)

2