Ad Astra Observatory

A widefield shot towards the center of the Milky Way galaxy in the vicinity of Scorpius and Sagittarius.

Note the “Dark Horse” Nebula, an extensive dust cloud that resembles a rearing horse.

The upper left corner of the image is blotted out because this was one of the first shots from my new Nikon DSLR, and I had not yet learned how to apply dark frames for noise reduction to remove the amp glow in this corner.

Shot while up in Shingletown, CA during July 2005 and finally(!) processed and uploaded in August 2006…