The Clark 24" telescope, built by Percival Lowell at Lowell
Observatory to study Mars in 1896, with Mars itself and the Milky Way
behind. Despite imperfect tracking and artificial lights, stars down
to magnitude 6.0 can be seen, and the star clouds near the center of
the Milky Way galaxy are just visible. The Lagoon Nebula is visible
above Mars, and Ptolemy's star cluster (M7) below it. Saturation of
Mars has removed its red color. Lack of a remote shutter release
meant I had to hold the shutter button down throughout the 60 second
exposure, producing the slight wobble in the star trails.

8:20pm, Sept. 9 2001.
60 sec., f2.6, ISO 200.
50% subsampled.