Gegenschein in Aquarius

Mousover for labels. Click for hires.

The star field is very crowded with dim stars, we're far from Milky Way and no light pollition was present at the location. But a yellowish glow is visible below center. That's the Gegenschein, the faint glow of the dust in the Solar System, at exactly the anti-solar direction. The mouseover data were obtained with Unimap and I've measured an elliptical dimension of about 20° x 15°. The background stars are mainly from Aquarius, with the well known "Mercedes" asterism at the top.

Technical data
Optics Canon lens 50 mm f/1.8 mkII
Focal Length 50 mm
Focal Ratio f/4
Exposure Time 1h (single exp of 10 min)
CCD Canon EOS 5D with Baader filter
Sensitivity 800 ISO
Location Tivoli Farm (Namibia) at 1350 m height
Date
25 August 2011, h0 UT
Mount Losmandy G11
Tracking none
Temperature and humidity T= +1°C, RH=54%
Sky brightness at zenith (with SQM-L) 21.75 mag/arcsec^2
Notes This image is a collaborative effort of the Namibia 2011 expedition. Processing: Lorenzo Comolli. Images by: Lorenzo Comolli, Luigi Fontana, Giosuè Ghioldi, Emmanuele Sordini.


HTML Editing and Publishing by Lorenzo Comolli. Email me at comolli@libero.it.
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