Southern Cross Wide-Field – with some laser left overs

Observation Notes

Not the best night I have seen on Cerro Paranal, the site of the ESO VLT, quite a bit of high cirrus. And I had the bad luck that the crew at UT4 with their 4 lasers aimed at my target region for the night, the extended Southern Cross region from Alpha Centauri to Eta Carina. Since it was a laser test run (they tested the air plane detection system) the laser was not steady and thus was mostly removed owing to rejection at stacking. Only a yellow patch above Eta Carina remained. Thanks to the high cirrus, the bright stars (and the yellow laser patch) come out particularly nice.

Data were taken on 2026 June 13

Technical Details

View the full-resolution image together with complete acquisition and processing details on AstroBin.