A picture is worth a thousand words

This pre-dawn all-sky image with the magnificent Southern Milky Way is recorded in Australia April 1986. A careful look around the image finds many other interesting celestial attractions. Near the right end of Milky Way just above and right of Southern Cross and bright stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri the little patch of light is Comet Halley about its brightest in 76 years. Toward the zenith close to the central bulge of the Milky Way a passing bright meteor is captured. Still near the central bulge the “extra star” in Scorpius is planet Saturn. A little toward the left side of the Milky Way band Mars is recorded in Sagittarius. There are two other planets in the image. Look through the white-yellow Zodiacal Light over the eastern horizon to find bright planet Jupiter (in less than a degree conjunction with star Lambda Aquarii). Look little more toward the horizon to find Mercury. The last gem of this all-sky view would be the Small Magellanic Cloud just above southern horizon (down left of the image). This unique photograph has not been possible to capture without an excellent planning to be in the right location at right time. As noted by the photographer and long time Sky&Telescope editor the image is made with a camera built specifically to take all-sky photos. It used a modified 16-mm f/2.8 Minolta fisheye lens (designed for a 35-mm camera) coupled to a 120-format film magazine made for a Hasselblad camera.