The Milky Way on September 21, 2023

Description:

The sky was supposed to be partly cloudy for that evening of September 21, 2023 and the smoke from the forest fires in western Canada was supposed to invade us. However, the sky cleared for a few hours for our enjoyment while our Mont-Tremblant astronomy club gathered for an evening of observation at Domaine St-Bernard under a Bortle-4 sky.

In this photo taken with a wide-angle lens, we can clearly see the Andromeda galaxy, the Pleiades’ small cluster of stars at the bottom center, and planet Jupiter between the two trees. The region is also dotted with dark nebulae, which are clumps of dust that obscure the light from the stars behind them.

There were red spot lights behind me in the field that cast my shadow and that of my telescope in the foreground while the photo was taken.