Park Avenue,
after hours.

Early visitors to this corner of Arches National Park saw a city street in its towering rock walls. At night, the sandstone skyline gives way to a much larger one.

Overhead, Cygnus—the Swan—flies along one of the Milky Way’s richest stretches. The Great Rift winds through it: clouds of interstellar dust hiding the starlight behind them. Around Deneb and Sadr, glowing hydrogen and dark clouds give this part of our galaxy its remarkable texture.

The view from the canyon is only the beginning. The numbered sky map connects the panorama to separate telescope photographs, revealing details that are far too small to resolve in the wide nightscape.

A closer look at Cygnus

01 — Sadr & the Butterfly Nebula. The glowing clouds of IC 1318 surround the apparent position of Sadr, at the heart of the Northern Cross.

02–03 — The Crescent Nebula. A P68 photograph places NGC 6888 in its surrounding star field; the 10-inch iDK brings its delicate shell into a much closer view.

04 — The Veil Nebula. These fine filaments are the visible remains of an exploded star, spread across the Cygnus Loop.

The detail panels were photographed with my William Optics Pleiades 68 refractor and 10-inch AG Optical iDK. The constellation borders and star patterns are registered to the photographed sky; foreground rock hides parts of the neighboring constellations and the Summer Triangle.