The Crux - Eta Carina region in the Southern sky is particularly rich in stars, clusters and light and dark nebulae. This image was taken at the Southern Sky tour of 2008 located at the Ensenada Lodge in Costa Rica. Dark skies allowed a reasonably deep image using only 6 minutes of total exposure.
Details
Date and location - Early AM of 2008-02-06 at the Ensenada Lodge, Costa Rica. Equipment- Modified Canon 350D camera with 300mm lens on Astrotrack mount. Exposure- 6 light and 40 dark frames at f/4 and ISO 1600 for 60s each with 20 flat frames added for calibration.Processing- Calibration, alignment, stacking and digital development in ImagesPlus. Some additional enhancement using Photoshop.