From 56 Million Light-Years Distance to my Backyard #Shorts

A spin through some of what I captured in May and June 2026 - all from my backyard in Camden, SC.

Targets, nearest to farthest:
The Cygnus Wall (NGC 7000), about 2,000 light-years - shown two ways, The Red Wall and Where's Yellow
Messier 26, an open cluster in a dense star field, about 5,000 ly
Messier 80, a globular cluster, about 33,000 ly
Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, about 21 million ly
Messier 49, a giant elliptical, about 56 million ly

The light from these left at wildly different times. M26's left as Stonehenge was going up; M80's while Cro-Magnons painted cave walls; M49's when the first primates appeared. To true scale, if one inch were 100 light-years, M49 would sit about 9 miles above your head.

Gear: Celestron Origin, plus an Askar V 80mm for the Cygnus Wall. Camden, SC (Bortle 4).
Music: "12 String Theme," my own recording.

More on Moondance, my astrophotography planning app (in free beta on TestFlight), in the comments.

See the Show!

#astrophotography #astronomy #deepsky #galaxy #nebula #starcluster #telescope #space #cygnuswall #shorts

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