Last Saturday night, a few members of the Astro observing group got to-gether for a StarBBQ, on a fellow mebers 12 acres near Mortimer Bay.

The night was one out of the book, cool but not cold, clear skies down to the horizon, telescopes set up and things cooking on the BBQ.

The night gave me an opportunity to take some sky shots with my new Canon 350D (XT Rebel) tripod mounted. All shots were with the standard 18 to 55 mm zoom with the focus just a fraction off to give the stars show their colour. Rated at 800 ISO. One shot, Coal Sack Region, I combined two shots as a mosaic to get higher up the sky. The exposure time is different, hence the slightly shorter star trails. Centre shot shows the large Magellanic cloud upper right and a faint satellite trail lower left. Coal Sack is near centre.

A reading on the SQM (Sky Quality Meter) gave a reading of 21+
Clear Skies "Down Under"
Shevill Mathers - Southern Cross Observatory.

Attached Images

	StarBBQ-25-03-06-1R+L.jpg (51.4 KB, 44 views)
	Starry Night-1+L.jpg (68.2 KB, 36 views)
	Starry Night-2+L.jpg (67.5 KB, 50 views)

Man, I can only WISH to see the stars that bright! That's amazing!

Even here in Kentucky we have light pollution out the wazoo, I can only see the major constellations.

Great pictures!

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I think our invitations must have been lost in the mail.

If you keep showing images like that, everyone will want to move to Tasmania...excellent! Did you take any "still" star photos, too? I'd love to see more.

So I guess you bought the Canon 350D after all. It appears to be an awesome camera - 'hope you're happy with it. Thanks for sharing.

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Sunset

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge. In alle Täler steigt der Abend nieder
mit seinen Schatten, die voll Kühlung sind.

the stars are looking like "showering stars on the earth". nice work.

Coool. You know I do wısh these 'Earth's axıs ıs goıng to shıft' people were rıght. At least we sould swap our half of the fırmament dor yours once ın a whıle...

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Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem.

Wow, that is awesome, thats what I want my photographs to look like. I live in a town of 10,000, in a mostly undeveloped rural area but it always seems bright at night.

These are really beautiful photos! I was looking at pretty much the same region early early sunday morning.

Now...
There's something you don't hear everyday! hehe.

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