Orion Ultra Wide

Orion Ultra Wide: A very wide field shot along the winter Milky Way. Orion shows prominently near the center, and includes the bright red star Betelgeuse and bright blue star Rigel. The hunter's dogs, Canis Major and Canis Minor are to the left of Orion. Canis Major including the bright star Sirius is in the lower left corner and Canis Minor including the not-quite-as-bright Procyon is on the left just above the Milky Way. Taurus, including the bright star Aldebaran in the "V" of the Hyades is to the right of Betelgeuse. Numerous clusters and Messier objects can be seen in the image. M42 is visible right below Orion's belt. M45, the Pleiades, are to the left. The Rosette and California nebula are also faintly visible.

Date: March 2010
Equipment: Canon 50D
10-22mm zoom lens at 12mm and f5.6
Meade LXD-55 mount (unguided)
Exposure: 18x4 minutes light
10x4 minutes dark

Processing Notes: Dark subtraction, alignment, and stacking in Deep Sky Stacker. Post-processed in Photoshop. (mostly increased color saturation and stretching with curves) A gradient (mostly in red) was removed from the lower right with a Carboni action. I think the gradient was mostly from horizon glow leftover from the sunset.

Additional Comments: The dark "blurs" in the bottom corners of the image are trees that came into the later exposures.

Views: 5925