Astronomer and pionner astrophotographer E. E. Barnard was fascinated with wide views of the Milky Way and its dark clouds. In his legendary Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of Milky Way a field of view similar to this one is featured in Plate 22: Region in Scorpius and Sagittarius, near Messier 6 [1]. This plate is a 4h15min exposure (basically the same exposure as my color mosaic), taken on 4th of July of 1905 at Mount Wilson. Barnard's passion for taking images is inspiring - Plate 22 was taken by this american astronomer on Independence Day! About Plate 22, Barnard writes: "Around Messier 6, and to the north, the stars are very thinly scattered, but all the rest of the plate shows more or less cloud structure. The cloud structure in the lower left corner, in the star cloud in which Messier 7 is located, gradually diminishes in strenght toward the middle of the picture but extends diagonally across the plate [...]", then describing positions and shapes of dark clouds. Plate 22 features 11 "dark objects" catalogued by Barnard. [1]  

My image features the very same Milky Way region Barnard photographed more than 100 years ago, captured with mostly amateur equipment in full color. Indeed, the color contrast between the rich yellow clouds of Milky Way unresolved stars, the dark clouds of dust, and the bright Hydrogen gas resembles (to me) a Tapestry in the Milky Way. I balanced M6 and M7 as opposite objects in one diagonal of the image, and the other diagonal has the contrasting Milky Way bright golden starfield and the dark clouds of dust. The red H-alpha clouds RCW 134 [top left] and Sh2-12 [partially out of the frame, to the right of the Butterfly Cluster] complete the view.

The large field of view was captured with my 6" newtonian telescope in a 6-panel mosaic. Each panel received only 40min of integration time, for a total of 4h. My goal with processing was to balance color and contrast. I consider this image a celestial portrait I am really happy with, making it one of my favourite telescope photos to date, all captured by myself, using relatively simple amateur equipment! I do wonder how would Barnard react to the technological marvel we have nowadays.

Constructive criticism, comments and suggestions are more than welcome in the comments section! 

Dates: 18 June, 29, 30 July 2021
Location: My Observatory, MG, Brazil. Rural Skies (Bortle 3, calculated SQM ~21.4)
Camera: Canon EOS 6D (mod) at ISO 1600
Optics: 150/750mm ATM Newtonian Telescope (optics by Sandro Coletti) + TS-Optics MaxField 2" Coma Corrector
Mount: Sky-Watcher HEQ5, tracking, guiding
Exposure Detail: 6-panel (2x3) mosaic, each 10x240s. Total integration 60x4min or 4h.
Software: NINA, EQMOD, PHD2, MyFocuserPro (acquisition); APP, PI, PS (processing).

[1] E. E. Barnard. A Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way, p.170-173. First published 1927 in two volumes by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Reedited and republished under the direction of Gerald Orin Dobek, by Cambridge University Press, 2011.