What is this?

[pgmark]

I am having a little trouble and I was hoping someone here could help me out a bit.  Last July I went to the southern hemisphere and took some pictures of the night sky and things in it.  I'd like to know what Im looking at though, but Im not at all familiar with the southern hemisphere night sky.  If you could please look at these pictures and let me know what they are of, I'd appreciate it.  I think one might be the Large Magellanic Cloud, but Im not sure and even if it is, I dont know which one.  I took the pictures on the night of July 3 at around 9PM; at the time, I was on the island of Moorea.  Thanks!

[rockystar]

there is a website where you can upload your photos and it will identify the constellations for you; if you can do that, you can check stellarium, with your date and location and you should be able to identify it

(I'm on my phone at the moment, but I'll see if I can find it when I'm at my laptop)

welcome to the forum

 

[clarkpm4242]

Lower pic - Coal Sack (dark patch), southern cross and down right towards Eta Carina

Upper pic Left to Right - Small Sagittarius Star Cloud,  Sagittarius Star Cloud, M6, M7, Scorpius.

HTH

Paul

[DirkSteele]

I agree with the above post on that.  The first picture is towards the centre of the Milky Way.  You can clearly see M7, known as Ptolemy's Cluster near the middle of the image.

 

The second is looking towards the Carina region of the Milky Way so would have been South West at that time of year.  Crux, the Southern Cross is obvious and to the bottom right you are just starting to see the Carina Nebula (mind blowing in a telescope with a wide field).

[rockystar]

Not that I have any doubt about the above guys identification, but I said i'd post the website (for future reference)

http://nova.astrometry.net/

 

[Dave In Vermont]

Good find, Rocky! I thought I had this - but it's vanished, but no more!

Yay!

Dave

[pgmark]

Thanks for all the help guys!  I especially want to thank Dave for the link, I had no idea there was a site that did that, that's awesome!