NGC 6729 and NGC 6723 are both amazing targets in the southern sky, located in the Corona Australis and Sagittarius constellations respectively.
Corona Australis is often called the "Southern Crown," and it's home to a spectacular dark molecular cloud that's pretty fantastic.
NGC 6729 is a reflection nebula, which means it doesn't emit its own light but instead reflects the light of nearby stars. It's actually part of a larger star-forming region, so what you're looking at are the birthplaces of new stars! It's a bit like a celestial maternity ward.
NGC 6723, on the other hand, is a globular cluster in Sagittarius, filled with hundreds of thousands of stars. The light from these densely packed stars has travelled around 28,000 light-years to reach us, give or take.
And then there is what looks like a galaxy? Not too sure as it is not coming up on the plate solve...
Now, back to my attempt to capture these awesome targets, the weather's been a pain, with clouds pretty much hogging the sky constantly. Not ideal for astrophotography, I can tell you that! I managed to snatch only about five hours on NGC 6729. I did get a break during the new moon though, which was sweet.
I went away for a little trip with the family and the dog and the site we were at was in a Bortle 2 zone, pretty much as dark as you can get... almost... Plus, the targets were close to the zenith, which means less atmosphere to contend with. So that helped a bunch and I actually managed to resolve a lot of detail in this target for my FOV.
I just wish the weather would clear up so I could get some more time on these beauties but for now this will have to do!
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