Barnards ghost surrounded by gold (finally the clouds part)
Well, you wouldn't believe it, hang on...let me just pinch myself..ouch...yep it's real ...I actually managed to collect an entire image data set last night ...
After arriving at the observatory around 10pm, it took until bloody midnight for the bloody clouds to roll away but man, I was there waiting
After the Moon set, I spent some time collecting for my longer project before it got too low and then with a pristine steady sky above just begging for some attention and a beautiful Milky Way half way up the sky...I decided on something subtle but beautiful and bright and that I could get a full colour image of before I left.
This is the dark hole known as Barnard 86 accompanied by the open star cluster NGC 6520 embedded in 100,000's of stars in the Milky Way...I got my desperately needed imaging hit
I finished off in the cold crisp morning witnessing a glorious display of Zodiacal Light, a lovely triangular tapering beam that stretched to almost overhead ...needless to say, I drove home happy
Like grains of sand... Beautiful image Mike. A cluster near dark nebula. There's still stars behind that nebula right? Just that their light doesn't get through. It must be very dense.
For all we know life in the universe may be abundant, yet distance keeps us apart.
Beautiful, subtle colour. A treat. Lots happening there - the dark nebula acting as the "before" shot, and the cluster as the "after". The few red giants add greatly to the the young blue-white cluster.
Colour looks good Mike. It's nice to have a couple of objects in the one image. Star fields can sometimes be dull but with some dark nebula and a cluster the field takes on a new dimension.
Cheers guys, sorry for the blurb about my night, hey, you know how it is..just need someone, anyone ..to share the fickle and frustrating nature of our hobby with
Oh and yeah, thaaanks Rick ...and I think getting anything AP makes the weather even worse
Wonderful image. Your stars look fantastic and such great resolution down to tiny ones.
I was out imaging all last night as well with the Honders even though I really need a couple of adapters that are on the way (aren't all adapters on the way?). That's 2 nights out of 4 and hopefully again tonight. Here it was solid overcast until about 9pm and then it was crystal clear horizon to horizon. It blows me away when it does that here (it does it often thankfully).
Yup, its definitely a good astro fix that should tie you over till next new moon?!?!?! Well, nearly perhaps. Nothing wrong sharing the accumulating pressure build up that happens between imaging sessions, especially when weather has been so unkind for sooo long.
Great image, thank you for sharing Mike. Looking at it reminded me of an old quote from a fellow astronomer from a relatively distant past. I looked it up and here it is:
To consider the Earth as the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd as to assert that in an entire field sown with millet, only one grain will grow.
— Metrodorus of Chios, 4th century BCE.
As for the astro gear and weather, I propose objective investigation into these matters.
Independent variable: New astro gear
Dependent variable(s): Rain, wind and hail...
I think life is abundant, the number of habitable planets must be enormous, but, the chances of a concurrent civilisation i think will be quite low if you consider how long it took, and the incredible odds against us reaching a point when we can look away from Earth, and how much longer we will exist as a species.
Thanks heaps guys, do appreciate the comments and understanding of my fast deteriorating patience ...I always say, well it could be worse, like other planets we could have several moons, now that would be truly unbearable
...I actually managed to collect an entire image data set last night 
...
for the bloody clouds to roll away but man, I was there waiting 
...needless to say, I drove home happy 
..to share the fickle and frustrating nature of our hobby with 
