Southern beauty

I haven't been out much in the sun here in Australia this time. Only for the Sun eclipse. Most nights, I have been out taking photos of the night sky. I have learned a great deal on how to set up the telescope under southern skies. And not the least : How to take better photos. It has been a steep learning curve. But it has been worth it. Rewarding is the word.
I found a spot about 1.5 hours drive west of Cairns. The entrance of a farm. Just beside the road. During the night, I would listen to the sounds of the forest close by. The cracking of a twig. Thumb of a foot. And the noise of insects. Yesterday, the spot was infested with mozzies. The mozzies come from miles around to dine on my blood. That is how tasty it is. But soon, I heard the relieving sound. "Tzi! Tzi! Tzi!". Batman to the rescue. The bat was flying around me for a couple of minutes. Mozzie-problem solved. You gotta love those guys!
Anyways : Here are some of the photos (Click on images to see larger versions):

First : The Large Magellan Cloud. 40 minute exposure, 85 mm @F/2.0, ISO 400. It is called cloud because that is what it looks like. A cloud in the sky. It is so big it doesn't look like a deep sky object. It is a satellite galaxy to the Milkyway. That is, it orbits our galaxy the same way a satellite orbits the Earth. Only it takes a few million years to orbit once...

The folowing images where taken with a Pentax K5 through a TS triplet APO. ISO 1600. Exposures ranging from 40 to 60 minutes. Stacking using DSS. Processing in Gimp and Irfanview.

The globular cluster 47 Tucanae. It is the size of the full moon in the sky.

One of the most beautiful objects in the southern skies, Eta Carina nebula.

The following objects are also visible in the north.

The Horsehead nebula. Enlarge to see why... I only managed 10 minutes of exposure for this one, since the Sun was rising.

The great galaxy of Andromeda.

The Orion Nebula