Ad Astra Observatory

A widefield shot of the Milky Way galaxy in the vicinity of Cygnus the Swan and Aquila the Eagle.

Note the “Great Rift”, an dust cloud that blots out most of the stars along the centerline of the photo.

The lower right 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 (the camera was “upside down” while shooting this photo).

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