This is a portion of the splendid southern Milky Way that is not visible from northern latitudes. This photo was taken from the visitors' center at Mauna Kea Observatory on the large island of Hawaii. At a latitude slightly less than 20 degrees north, the southern Milky Way is visible from Mauna Kea Observatory, although it was still low near the horizon. The southern skies have a number of beautiful deep sky objects that residents of the northern hemisphere cannot observe. The view was improved, however, by the fact that the visitors' center is located at an altitude of 9300 feet. The red nebula visible in this photograph is Eta Carinae.
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This was a photograph using my Nikon F2 camera with a 105mm lens, mounted piggyback on a Takahashi FS-78 scope on a Takahashi EM-10 mount. The mount was being guided by an SBIG ST-8 CCD. (I took this piggyback photo while I was imaging with the CCD.) Unfortunately, low clouds near the horizon darkened the bottom of the photo. I would like to express special thanks to Hugh Grossman and the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy for allowing me to use their facilities to set up my telescope for astrophotography.
December 22, 1998
Photo by Sid Leach
Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
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