"My God, it's full of stars."

[ASIGN_Baz]

I spent last night and the wee hours of this morning doing a wide-field shoot on the Southern Cross between breaks in the horrible sodium-lit orange clouds of Canberra.

This time I took the camera out of the telescope and just used the standard 70-300 kit lens on the Canon 400D. I set the F stop for 4.5 and the Focal length at 130mm.

I piggy backed the camera on top of my telescope mount to track the stars.

After 24 x 60 second exposures (darks subtracted) I am STUNNED at how FULL of stars the Southern Cross is! To think our Sun is just one of four hundred billion stars in our galaxy, let alone the infinite galaxies in the universe! What magnificence! There's a lot more going on in the universe than most of us know!

The main Stars of the constellation also known as Crux, (Latin for cross) are Alpha, Bata, Delta, Gamma and Epsilon Crux. Alpha Crux is a binary star (Two stars orbiting each other around a common centre of gravity. These five stars are within ten parsecs or 32.62 light years.

The dark cloudy looking object in the right hand corner is one edge of the Coal Sack, a dark nebula of stellar dust around 700 light years away, blocking the light of the stars behind it.

The object at the bottom centre is the Jewel Box, 6440 light years away and containing about 100 stars.

Higher Resolution image near the bottom of my page under widefields.

Not bad for a kit lens and no telescope!

Baz.

[dark knight]

Astonishing, a lovely image, just needs a frame and hanging on the wall..fantastic

[Beulah]

Awesome, Baz!!

[yeti monster]

Cheers Baz! Once again I am reminded of how pityful our northern skies must be compared to those of the southern hemesphere.

Once we sell the property, I am under instruction from Mrs. Yeti to head over to Oz for some stella-fixes.

[Herakles]

Stunning WF Baz , thanks for showing us what we can't see here in the North.

[barkis]

Hardly any room for another star Baz. Full of Stars is an understatement.

It is so difficult to comprehend the number of suns, let alone other bodies like planets, moons, asteroids, and possibly other strange structures yet to be discovered. Truly mind rupturing, and I do not believe man will ever fully understand the Universe. The known, and the Unknown.

Ron.

[ASIGN_Baz]

Hey thanks everyone, I'm so glad it has provoked a few thoughts!

Here's something to chew on while looking into the photo. The great factories that stars are, process light elements like hydrogen into a heavier element like helium through fusion. As the molecules fuse and become heavier they give off massive amounts of energy in the form of heat, light, radiation etc.

As a star runs out of hydrogen, (Our sun converting 600000000 tons per second, now do you want to re-think how big it is?) it will have to start a secondary reaction after a few violent tantrums and convert helium into the next heaviest element.

Every molecule in your body, on the screen in front of you, in the air you breathe, in the plastic of your keyboard is an element that was churned out of a star at some point.

How this process was started and the time-frame is debatable between theory, fact, theology etc, but this much I know...It is an amazingly complex machine running perfectly and we are a conscious being as an end result! Unfathomable to us mere mortals who think we have the answers...

my philosophy, never think you know for sure and QUESTION EVERYTHING you are told and taught. Don't be a robot stretching for popularity...

I just love an am in awe of the machine!

Baz.

__________________

[yeti monster]

From the thread: What do you get out of Astronomy?

Originally Posted by Jupiter Martin

I also wonder how it was all made and how far we will ever get on understanding how the universe got here.

As any, rational, person will tell you, it was all made in just 6 days. Although we often feel that we understand things, actually we are always miles out and some pandimensional megabeing is sitting "out there" laughing its socks off at us.

[ASIGN_Baz]

From the thread: What do you get out of Astronomy?

Originally Posted by Jupiter Martin

I also wonder how it was all made and how far we will ever get on understanding how the universe got here.As any, rational, person will tell you, it was all made in just 6 days. Although we often feel that we understand things, actually we are always miles out and some pandimensional megabeing is sitting "out there" laughing its socks off at us.

are you trying to say something mate?

Baz,

[jgs001]

That Baz is truly stunning... There are just so many stars in that image...

[ASIGN_Baz]

Thanks John. Yup, I thought it was pretty amazing to see all that in the background.

[cyroflame]

Baz that is incredible, cannot believe that amount in that one frame, i couldn't even begin to imagine just how many are there! like 10 or 20!!!! lol

[albedo0.39]

Hi Baz - great image and also, some nice thought provoking facts to keep the creative juices flowing. As if we needed reminding of the insignificance of our place in the cosmic scheme of things, then just a quick look at your image helps to remind us.

Awe inspiring.

We are not worthy....

Cheers

S

[Astorix]

Really great shot! my eyes hurt trying to count all the stars!

[ASIGN_Baz]

Thanks again wonderful people!

Baz.

[MoJo]

Baz awesome shot.

Some of the comments got me thinking to the time I stayed out in rural France.

To cut a long story short, one exceptionally clear cold night (cold =no mossies:headbang:)after an enormous storm across southern France I swung the 100X25 bins across the sky from the teapot and randomly pointed them at the zenith only to catch a part of the milky way that due to the conditions was showing perfectly, like the guys have said before, a real jaw dropping OMG moment!!

clear skies to all

Mo.