30 minutes exposure, Fuji Super HG V 400 film. 35mm f/2.8 Nikon lens.
Canis Major is one of the dominent constellations of the summer sky. The Milky Way passes through the eastern portion of the constellation, and it contains numerous interesting deep-sky objects for any sized telescope; from large and bright open clusters to tiny faint galaxies. It is also home to the brightest star in the sky, the beautiful blue-white Sirius.
In the photograph above, Sirius is towards the top right. Above left is the emission nebula IC 2177, also known as the "Seagull Nebula". To the left of Sirius and slightly below, are the open clusters, M 46 and M 47. The small clump below Sirius is the open cluster M 41. This is a beautiful object in a wide-field telescope. A fourth Messier open cluster is M 93, which is situated some distance below M46 and M47.
The large annulus of red towards the bottom of the photograph is the Vela supernove remnent.
