The Great Sagittarius Star Cloud

[Nightfly]

The brightest and grandest star cloud in all the Milky Way captured with traditional B&W methods. The structure and detail of the Great Cloud is visible in binoculars or a richest-field telescope. This photograph was taken last June on a particularly clear night. This upcoming dark of the Moon will have my camera revisit these familiar areas.

This image is a somewhat cropped version taken with a medium format film camera and 300mm f/4 lens wide open and exposing Fuji Acros 100 for 30 minutes.

The Great Sagittarius Star Cloud by Nightfly Photography, on Flickr

[fatwoul]

Wonderful image, Jim. I went straight to your Flickr because I wanted to see a bigger copy - it makes you want to dive in and move around the image on a larger scale.

EDIT: My mistake - Flickr led me astray.

[Damo636]

That's a truly stunning image Jim :-)

[reddoss]

Agreat picture Jim, and just goes to show how good astro monochrome images can be.

[Gina]

Another masterpiece - fantastic!

[george7378]

I just love milky way shots - imagining all the stars making up that patch of light is quite a task Your picture helps the imagination along though!

[Nightfly]

^{Thank you all. I am out again tonight imaging this monster star cloud. Seeing it rising above my tree line in the southern sky pulls me toward it. What a great object for wide-field imaging and a visual treat for binoculars. Such majestic beauty.}

[pixelsaurus]

Great shot. On my to do list as it gets nice and high here. Tail of Scorpius almost reaches the zenith. If only the cloud would go away.

[Anweniel]

Wow fabulous image Jim and glad too see you keeping the art of imaging with film alive. must be wonderful to see the results come through

[Nightfly]

Great shot. On my to do list as it gets nice and high here. Tail of Scorpius almost reaches the zenith. If only the cloud would go away.

Thanks Mike, I envy your view of Scopius near the zenith! Oh how it must be.

Wow fabulous image Jim and glad too see you keeping the art of imaging with film alive. must be wonderful to see the results come through

Thank you. I enjoy the old craft very much. The spirit of the old photographic pioneers comes through.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Magnificent image! Makes me yearn for darker skies during the upcoming summer holidays (southern France most likely).

[Chris]

Wowzers! now this is why they call it the Milky Way!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Wowzers! now this is why they call it the Milky Way!

Though I prefer my milk less lumpy

[Quatermass]

Great work Jim a stunning image

[morimarty]

A truly stunning image Jim, I have viewed this through 15x70 bins many times, and it really is a beautiful sight!

[Nightfly]

A truly stunning image Jim, I have viewed this through 15x70 bins many times, and it really is a beautiful sight!

Isn't it! I was sweeping it last night and ended up viewing B86 right after imaging. In the 8" SCT the dark nebulae seemed to leap at you as it appeared three dimentional with the "bright background". An easy find as it is located due south of Messier 8. Binoculars are perhaps the best to take in the whole cloud, which is one of the largest deep sky objects in the sky.