Improvised DSLR single shot of the Southern Cross (Crux)

It's Brazilian carnival once more, one of the biggest local holidays around here. It's a time of parties and lots of people in the streets. For me it's being a time of retirement and relaxation. And by that I mean being alone in my house spending the entire holiday on the internet, or with friends and family in some not crowded small city with some good nature, away from all the craziness that is the carnival. Don't get me wrong, it's fun, but taking the time to enjoy nature and relax is too. So I did.

The oldest friend I have (He's son of my father's best friend, so I know him long enough to don't even remember when we first met) invited me to spend the carnival in his family's estate, 1 hour driving from the town. A really nice, beautiful and comfortable place. Thank you Iago, for everything.

It was my first time visiting the place, so I asked him about the night sky, and he reported it was heavily polluted. So I decided not to bring my astronomy equipment, just my wife's DSLR. (Just in case). I haven't even brought any tripod. Nothing but the DSLR. And oh boy! I should have brought everything, not only the night sky was really nice (probably a Bortle Scale 5) but we spent the first night with very little clouds.

So I decided to improvise, got myself a pillow and placed it on the ground with the DSLR on top pointing upwards and managed to take some shots. After some in-house picking of the best shot and some edition, here's the result.

I really liked the fact that in this picture we can see not only the Southern Cross but also the Wishing Well Cluster (NGC 3532) and the Homunculus Nebula.

Author: Fernando Schuindt

License: CC BY 4.0