By JUDITH Gaffney | 2026-05-24
Galactic Fire
On 05/24/2026 02:00 am by Makrem Larnaout | Tunisia
That night, everything aligned, the darkness, the silence, and a rocky landscape that felt like it belonged to another world. Far from any city glow, I set up my gear among the stones and waited for the galactic core to climb above the horizon. What struck me most was what the camera revealed that my eyes could not: a vast arc of glowing red hydrogen, quietly wrapping itself around the heart of our galaxy. The Hα filter pulled it out of the darkness like a secret the sky had been keeping all along.
EXIF
Canon EOS Ra (astro-modified)
Sigma 29mm f/1.4 ART
SkyWatcher GTi mount
Foreground : 5 × 3s
Sky : Luminance: 5 × 60s; Hα: 5 × 120s
Integration
Lum/Clear
5×60″
5′
24 May
61%
Multiband
5×120″
10′
24 May
61%
Totals
15′
24 May
61%
Equipment
Lens
Sigma 28mm F1.4 DG HSM (Art)
Camera
Canon EOS Ra
Mount
Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer GTi
Filters
Optolong L-eXtreme 2"
ZWO UV IR CUT 2"
Accessory
ZWO ASIAIR Mini
Software
Adobe Photoshop
Pleiades Astrophoto PixInsight