Airglow, Gegenschein, Milky Way and ... the clouds
Hi Folks,
It seems this year the sky is quite active. Last night I managed to get a panoramic image which contains airglow (atomic oxygen emission, green cast), the Gegenschein (a bluish fuzzy ball at the center-right), and the Milky Way. Although the clouds spoiled the observations, on the other hand they brought something special to the image.
Great field. So many components captured at the same time. I saw the Gegenschein visually once at Coonabarabran but it was right up ahead and the milkyway was all around at the horizon level so the sky was very dark and the glow was very obvious. I noticed it and asked one of the guys what was it? That's how bright it was. Never heard about it before.
I have seen the Gegenschein TWICE, both of course at DARK sites. At home, I can barely even see the Magellanic clouds naked eye, let along Gegenschein!
Beautiful image Yuri. How long was each exposure? Were you on a polarie or astrotrac? (foreground a bit blurred).
We captured the green airglow Saturday night too. Looks like it was in abundance!
Thanks, Mike ! Indeed, it seems there is lots of stuff happening in the upper atmosphere these days. This image is a panorama of 3 x 180 sec, and as you correctly pointed out - the foreground is quite blurred due to tracking. I use Kenko Skymemo as a tracker. It's much heavier than Polarie and Astrotrac, but it does have huge advantage in my observing conditions (mountains > 2000 m, strong wind sometimes) - it's extremely rigid and stable.
