Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  31 Ori  ·  34 Ori)  ·  34 del Ori  ·  41 Ori A)  ·  41 Ori C  ·  41 the01 Ori  ·  42 Ori)  ·  42 c Ori  ·  43 Ori)  ·  43 the02 Ori  ·  44 Ori)  ·  44 iot Ori  ·  45 Ori  ·  46 Ori)  ·  46 eps Ori  ·  48 Ori  ·  48 sig Ori  ·  50 Ori)  ·  50 zet Ori  ·  Alnilam  ·  Alnitak  ·  B33  ·  De Mairan's nebula  ·  Flame Nebula  ·  Great Orion Nebula  ·  Hatysa  ·  Horsehead nebula  ·  IC 423  ·  IC 426  ·  IC 431  ·  And 79 more.
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New Years at Orion, SemiPro
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New Years at Orion

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New Years at Orion, SemiPro
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New Years at Orion

Equipment

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Acquisition details

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Description

For your viewing pleasure, I present Orion's Belt and pals.

This has been a long time in the making - or perhaps in the planning.

The idea to do a mosaic of Orion with the RASA was hatched sometime in the fall. At the bare minimum I wanted to get all of Orion's Belt and the Orion Nebula.  The window would be the short time I'd be back out west on break from university, as imaging this in Montreal is simply a non-starter. It needs dark skies. Fast forward to December where I made all the preparations. Unfortunately the RASA had too many tilt issues and got shelved in favour of the RedCat as I did not want to risk such a short window with (as of now) unreliable equipment.

The other problem is the weather here. I am talking record low temperatures in some places of the province. The first clear night was the 27th. The forecasted temperature was -20ish celsius so not too bad. I set up, was ready to go, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd a power cable shorted out. I had no replacement. Night finished. I thought that was it - I would have to wait a year to do this.

The cloud forecast for the 31st was promising but the temperature forecast was not. Leading up to the day of, we were under a wind chill warning of -40c plus. The 31st rolls around. Cloud forecast is good. At the last minute, the warning is lifted but -30c temperatures are still forecasted at my darksite location. I bundled up and out I went.

So this is how I spent my New Years, imaging Orion in -30c temperatures. It bottomed out at -37c. The rig held together alright, though the lens started frosting near the end. You'll notice I have a lot less calibration frames than usual. Shooting at -40c meant I had to rush home and get as many dark frames as I could before it "warmed" up again!

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Alight now to the processing. It's Orion. What is there to say? With the RedCat I was able to capture all the usual suspects. I even got M78 in there! The orientation was purposely chosen because this is how Orion appears in the sky where I am at. I combined 600, 300, and 60 second subs to try and squeeze out everything I could, from the faint dust to the trapezium (which is just a blob due to the resolution). It was slightly humorous having to use HDR after every step in the stretching process to save the trapezium from being blown out. I only got 6 of the 8 hours I wanted but I can't complain given the situation. I truly tried to squeeze everything out of it that I could.

Comments

Revisions

  • New Years at Orion, SemiPro
    Original
  • New Years at Orion, SemiPro
    B
  • New Years at Orion, SemiPro
    C
  • Final
    New Years at Orion, SemiPro
    G

B

Description: Just me and my telescope (and truck) freezing out in the middle of nowhere!

Uploaded: ...

C

Description: One of the first astro picture I ever took, look familiar? Orion through a lame Bird-Jones type telescope with my phone. I was pretty hyped at the time!

Uploaded: ...

G

Description: New Process

Uploaded: ...

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

New Years at Orion, SemiPro