Photographed on the Tropic of Capricorn near Emerald, Queensland, Australia*******************************************************************************************************************
Although this region of the celestial sphere rides high in northern hemisphere sky in the winter, I have never had a good chance to photograph it from a dark site. After doing all of the astrophotography in the southern sky that I wanted, on my final night of astronomy I decided to try an image of Orion and its surrounding constellations. For the seven frames that are stacked together to make the final image, I used my modified Nikon D800 camera body (red blocking filter removed to allow through the light from the red hydrogen alpha gas that permeates much of this part of the sky).
In this view, Orion lies on its side above and a little to the left of centre. The reddish curve of Barnard's Loop can be seen within and in the lower portion of Orion. The brilliant star Sirius - bloated and over-exposed in this photo - is at the bottom edge, just right of centre. The large reddish circular Rosette Nebula in Monoceros is a little left of and below centre.
For a closer view - made with a 50 mm lens - click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/15979159182/_________________________________________________________________________________
Nikkor 24-70 mm lens on Nikon D800 modified camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount.
35 mm focal length; ISO 2000; seven stacked two-minute exposures at f/4.5.
Stacked in Registar; processed in Photoshop CS6.
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