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Bogenfels

Namibia

Camera : Sony A7rV Ha mod

Lens : Sony 12-24 F2.8 GM

Tracker : Rainbow Astro RST 135e

Tripod : Really Right Stuff TVC 45

Head : Arca Swiss D4

Sky : 300secs F2.8 Iso 800 stacked

Foreground : 480secs F2.8 Iso 800 LENR LLL

Filters : Kani night filter

The mining ghost town of Bogenfels lies in the Sperrgebiet in South West Namibia. Sperrgebiet translated from German means the restricted area. The Sperrgebiet is an active diamond mining zone and one risks getting shot if not having the proper credentials and permits to enter the area. In times past the German colonizers had set up diamond mining towns and what we see here is a decrepit washing plant in which diamonds were separated from the soil they were excavated from. The diamonds on the ground are since long gone but the ones in the skies above, remain. Resolved in the sky we see clockwise, from the Pleiades Star Cluster to the Taurus asterism with its dust clouds, and on to the Witch head Nebula. The distinctive Orion Molecular complex with the Horsehead nebula and the Barnard’s loop take center stage. The Seagull Nebula appears further right before we loop back to the Rosette and Christmas tree Nebula and onward to the Flaming star Nebula before completing the circle at the California Nebula. Whew!

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