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FlyTrapMan's Notes: Cygnus flies high during northern summer nights—this space swan stretches a pair of starry wings—as it soars along the galactic plane. The Milky Way's Local Arm sweeps across Cygnus, but the delicate glow is only revealed under a dark sky.

 

The Milky Way’s diffuse Local Arm (or Orion Arm) appears to wrap around Cygnus. The Dark Rift (a vast molecular cloud of gas and dust) swallows starlight and stretches along the Local and Sagittarius Arm. Photographing the Dark Rift proved to be difficult because of light pollution. I was able to stack a layered JPEG file and that revealed subtle detail.

 

 

My location was dark enough to see the Milk Way, but minor light pollution prevented me from acquiring better exposures—however—I didn’t expect to record much detail. The Milky Way may appear to be nothing more than a smudgy luminescent curtain, but a grand structure floats within the hazy stellar light. I was determined to reveal it.

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The above photograph shows the Dark Rift lounging across the Local Arm. Vega is the bright star toward the frame’s top left corner. The Milky Way culminated toward the zenith when the photograph was taken, so I was able to record a larger swath of the Dark Rift, while keeping light pollution at a minimum. Light pollution is always worse toward the horizon and gradually becomes less sever toward the zenith. Imaging at a later time also ensured less lights would be on.

**End cosmic space journal entry #2**

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** Technical Notes **

• Date: August 2015

• Location: New England

• Weather/Seeing: Fair

• Targets: Cygnus, Milky Way, Local Arm, Dark Rift

• Cameras: Canon Rebel XSi/Canon Rebel T5i

• Goals: Reveal Dark Rift / test Canon Rebel T5i

• Lens: Canon EF 24mm (prime f/2.8)

• Aperture: f/2.8

• Exposure: 13-25 Seconds

• Mount: Orion German Equatorial (untracked)

• Processing: Single frame, monochrome conversion, stacked layers, dodged, and screened.

 

(Post updated and originally published on SkyofFlyTrapMan)

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