From a high point about 50 feet above route 90 west of Del Rio, Texas, I enjoyed a perfectly flat southern horizon to capture Achernar and its environs. This view with a 55 mm lens gives a generally normal view of the constellations, so we see southern Eridanus, Phoenix, and the edges of the surrounding constellations. Of course there are no star clusters in this area, which is not far from the south galactic pole, but we did actually record two of the brighter galaxies in the Sculptor Group, NGC 55 and NGC 300, at upper right. The latitude here was 29° 42', so we can see from the elevation of Achernar that it is farther north than the image from southern Texas. Unannotated image. |