I had extensively planned this photo before we departed on our trip to Australia and New Zealand. Using Photo Pills, I determined that it should be possible to find a location near the church that would allow me to have the Southern Cross, which is part of the southern Milky Way, directly above the church. I planned to use my Gigapan nodal head to capture a wide sky view. I had also planned to include the Magellanic Clouds.
The Southern Cross – The five main stars of the Southern Cross belong to a larger group officially known as the constellation Crux. Crux is the smallest constellation in the sky and the most famous southern star group. It is a kite-shaped cluster of four bright stars (and one not so bright), all within 16 degrees of each other in the sky. In the course of 24 hours, the Cross appears to make a complete circuit in the heavens around a point known as the South Celestial Pole. The mid-point of the line extending from the long axis of the Cross to the bright star Achernar is directly south. The Southern Cross appears in various forms on the national flags of four countries: New Zealand, Western Samoa, Papua New Guinea, and Australia. Confirmation that the Cross has been found is the presence of two bright stars called the Pointers: Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri.
Magellanic Clouds -- The two cloud-like patches of light in the upper right are the neighbouring galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds and are only visible in the Southern Hemisphere skies. They are about 170,000 light years away, and the Large Magellanic Cloud contains about 10,000 million stars. These are the closest galaxies to our own and are a stunning sight whether viewed with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. They are considered satellite galaxies linked by gravity to the Milky Way.
The day we arrived, we went out to the church's location around 5 pm, and I fired up the Photo Pills app on my phone and found the location which would give the correct location to set up my camera. Then, at about 10 pm, we went back, and I carried my equipment to that location and set it, waiting for Moon to set at 11 pm.
This stitched image comprises 30 images, 3 rows x 10 columns, and approximately 33% overlap in portrait orientation. The original image is: 247 Megapixels, 13283 x 18596 pixels, 44" x 62" 300 PPI
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