GUYS 😍

First image with my new Rokinon 135mm f/2 lens, paired with my astro color camera (ZWO ASI294MC Pro). Y'all, this is **from the city**!! With just a light pollution filter, I managed to capture a whole lot of background dust in addition to some great color and detail in the nebulae! I'm so excited about how well this came out!

A note on the lens -- the fuzzy halos around the brighter stars aren't so much a lens artifact as they are some thin clouds that were rolling through. I thought about removing those frames, but I like the effect it gives the brighter stars, so I left them in. (The diffraction spikes are from the lens though -- from the iris.)

On the left are the two leftmost stars of Orion's Belt, Alnitak (right next to the Flame Nebula) and Alnilam (up above the nebulae). The Flame Nebula is the orange leaf-looking thing on the far left, with the Horsehead Nebula just beside -- the same Horsehead I posted a close-up for yesterday. Over on the right side is the ever-gorgeous and familiar Great Nebula of Orion, with the "Running Man" region just to its left (NGC 1975). Surrounding the nebulae are clouds of gas and dust that comprise part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, which extends much further out than I've captured here.

As far as the lens goes, I set it at f/2.8. The stars do have a bit of coma out toward the edges, but it's really only noticeable if you zoom in. (This image is cropped, so you won't really see it here). I used the same lens in Chile, and am totally in love with it. Very excited to bring it out to a dark site!

Details:

Date: 8, 9 January 2021

Location: Easy Bay area backyard, CA

Object: Orion Widefield

Attempt: 6

Camera: ZWO ASI1294MC Pro

Telescope: Rokinon 135mm f/2.8

Accessories: Astronomik CLS-CCD 1.25-inch filter

Mount: iOptron CEM40

Guide scope: Orion 50mm guidescope

Guide camera: QHY5

Subframes: 55x10s, 103x180s (5h18m10s)

Gain/ISO: 120

Acquisition method: Sequence Generator Pro

Stacking program: PixInsight 1.8.8-7

Post-Processing program: PixInsight 1.8.8-7

Darks: 100

Biases: 0

Flats: 50

Temperature: -20C