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Here come the cool crisp fall nights!

The Great Bird / Northern Cross /Cygnus makes up a corner of the Summer Triangle. Image captured from Sky Safari

For the last few weeks I’ve been working on a portion of the Constellation Cygnus. Specifically a 12 panel mosaic of the region from the Cygnus Loop to Sadr. I’ve just about finished the LRGB (color/wide band) data and will finish up the Hydrogen and Oxygen (narrowband) data as the Moon marches to full and back. I get lost sometimes as I image, often reading or watching old episodes of Star Trek. It’s a good escape. Especially these days. Life is just more involved during this global pandemic. In fact, it almost feels like I’m cheating when I’m deep in a constellation billions of light years away. Escapism at its best.

Directly overhead with Jupiter and Saturn prominent

You’ve seen Cygnus. Even if you didn’t know it. It’s what some call the Northern Cross. It’s directly overhead from the August to October each year. The cross-like pattern forms the great bird of Cygnus. Envisioned thousands of years before modern civilization, it resembles a bird in flight. Every year it sails over us as we busy ourselves with life. Ups. Downs. Goods. Bads- Life. It races away, life and the Constellations.

Blue, gold, orange, yellow, white and red. Specifically calibrated glass filters allow for a particular wavelength to be collected. Once collected, a collection of calibration files with signal files reveal the visible color of distant stars.

But life and my astrophotography take time. It’s not fast. There are no short cuts. A center cut of my recent work in Cygnus reveals thousands of stars that MIGHT be someone’s Sun. Patience, time, and perseverance. No substitute. Make the jump and cruise around. Maybe get lost. It’s only going to get better. But… most things do with time.

Here’s hoping your days are slowly coming into focus, despite all the crazy of the pandemic.

Matt

Click Above to see the full size high resolution image…


And a little music for the road…

The Stars on Your Way

Listen to The Stars on Your Way on Spotify. Brock Tyler · Song · 2012.

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AstronomyAstrophotographyMatt HarbisonNebula PhotosphilosophyQHY600spaceSpace 4 EverybodySpace For EverybodySpace PhotosSpace4EverybodySpaceforeverybodySuper High Resolution Space PhotosTakahashiTakahashi 645Takahashi FSQ106The Marathon MotelWest Texas Skies

2 Replies to “The Deep Dark Sky”

  1. Hey Matt, love the images! All of the photos you’ve taken are honestly some of the best I’ve ever seen! Is there any way to download the full resolution images? If so, that’d be great!

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