the constellation of orion

[moonshinegnomie]

betelgeuse is the bright star on the left
rigel in the bright star on the
in the center is the horsehead nebula with the orion nebula to the right of it and what is called barnards loop to the left
taken with a 50mm lens and a nikon d850 in crop sensor mode.
iso 1000 stopped down to f4.0. a stack of 4 minute exposures plus 30 second exposures so i didnt completely blow out the orion nebula
I used a filter to try and reduce light pollution and enhance the nebulosity since im shooting just outside of austin texas.

[DarthDem]

2. Perfect Shot!!!

You got Bellatrix and Saiph in there too for the full effect. Fantastic job - just beautiful.

[moonshinegnomie]

3. been trying for a while

50mm on a crop sensor seems to be the perfect focal length. I was able to use the filter i use for my normal nebula shots with a little gaffers tape

[DarthDem]

9. Well done

Just beautiful. Good thought with the tape!!

[MLAA]

4. Gorgeous!

[3catwoman3]

5. My favorite constellation for 2 reasons.

1. I can find it.
2. It actually, more or less, looks like what its name is. Most of them don't.

[Grokenstein]

7. I still love the revisions by H.A.Rey.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._A._Rey#Star_charts

Rey is best known for his Curious George books (which I never got into) but I loved how he reimagined the constellations for his books The Stars and Find the Constellations. I remember a few grumps sniffing at the "dumbing down" of constellations waaaay back in the day, but f*** 'em, they're all dead now while Rey's books remain popular.

[niyad]

6. Amazing. Thank you for sharing.

[progree]

8. To see what's in the sky now, or at whatever date/time/location one chooses --

https://in-the-sky.org/skymap2.php

(get rid of that deep space junk with that checkbox below the sky map and on the left side -- nobody can see any of that stuff unless they live 50 miles from the nearest street lamp, so its just clutter)

For those who want to see the H.A. Rey version of the constellations: On the left side below the sky map, there is the default setting: "Simplified Designs". Pull down on its arrow, and choose "H.A. Rey's designs".


On Orion, for those, like me, who took a while to figure it out:

Its head is near the far upper left corner (basically 2 dim stars).

Imagine Orion is facing us (he's also oriented about 30 degrees from the horizontal position):

Betelguese, the pink right shoulder star, is on the far left of the picture, about 60% of the way up from the bottom

Belatrix, the other shoulder star, is a bluish star very near the top, and about 30% of the way from the left edge

Saiph, the right foot, a dim bluish-white star, is near the bottom right

Rigel, the left foot, a bright bluish white star, is near the far right edge, and about 60% of the way up from the bottom

Orion's belt is 3 stars in the middle of the picture, in a nearly vertical line

Great picture!

[moonshinegnomie]

10. i use a couple of different apps

skyguide and stellarium.
stellarium also has a desktop version that i use a lot for planning shoots