Antares Nebulae

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Antares appears to the naked eye as a very red star, so that the name "Antares" means "Anti-Ares", or antagonist of Mars, the red planet. In photography Antares is very yellow, and the nebulae encingling the star are lightened of the same color. The region around Antares is full of wonderful nebulae with other colors, such as the red around Sigma Sco (right) or the blue around Ro Sco (top) and 22 Sco (middle-left).
Two great globular clusters are present in this two pane mosaic: M4 at bottom and M80 at top-right. And moreover NGC6144 is a little above the line between Antares and M4.

Technical data
Optics Pentax 75 apo refractor
Focal Length 500 mm
Focal Ratio f/6.7
Exposure Time 5 h 40 min (single exp of 10 min), mosaic of two panels
CCD Canon EOS 5D with Baader filter
Sensitivity 800 ISO
Location Tivoli Farm (Namibia) at 1350 m height
Date
24-25 August 2011 (two nights)
Mount Kenko NES
Tracking Lodestar with a small refractor (F.L. 100 mm, aperture 23 mm)
Temperature and humidity T= +4 and +8 °C, RH=45 and 30%
Sky brightness at zenith (with SQM-L) 21.5 and 21.8 mag/arcsec^2 (MW at zenith)
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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