AAO image reference UKS 35. « Previous || Next »
Top left is NE. Image width is almost 2 degrees
Image and text © 2001-2010, Australian Astronomical Observatory. Photograph from UK Schmidt plates by David Malin.
Unlike almost every other image in this series, this picture was made of a random section of the southern sky, since we happened to have a three-colour set of images for it. It happens to be in Pavo, which is fairly close to the galactic plane, so well sprinkled with stars. However, there is not much galactic dust here, so distant galaxies and clusters of galaxies are also visible on the high resolution versions of this image. The brightest star visible here is the magnitude 4.2 variable blue star lambda Pav, visible to the the unaided eye in a dark sky, while the scattering of stars in the lower part of the picture are about a magnitude fainter and would be hard to see in all but the darkest conditions.
Related Images
UKS 36. The spiral galaxy NGC 6744 in Pavo
UKS 40. The IC 4765 galaxy cluster in Pavo
AATCCD 6. NGC 6744, a Milky Way-like spiral galaxy
Constellation of Pavo (external site)
For details of object position and photographic exposure, search technical table by UKS reference number.