Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Dark Horse of Midnight

Last weekend's star gazing at Palomar Observatory Campground had probably the darkest sky I've ever seen at this location. The reason? We were expecting a storm to move in on Sunday, and during Saturday night, the clouds covered the nearby cities for a few hours before covering the mountain top.

At 1:00 pm, looking south at the Milky Way, you could detect dustlanes that look like a horse standing above the back of Scorpius.  I've never seen this before.  Double-click the photos below to enlarge the image, if necessary. The horse is diagrammed in the third image along with Scorpius. 


A wide field, portrait view.

A crop of the above photo.

The horse drawn (pun intended)


 jg



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