The Orion Constellation

[Cameron Cushman]

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2594/4108671180_555f8b2242.jpg

Give me a break guys, this is my first attempt at shooting the night sky!

So tonight after i missed one of the most gorgeous sunsets i have ever seen i was pretty bummed and decided to head outside for a few hours to shoot some star trails, well i didnt really get anything good out of those, so i looked around the sky and i saw this Constellation which is the Orion Constellation, i would like to thank Kyle Kruchok for telling me the name of this Constellation as without him i would be clueless.

Orion, often referred to as "The Hunter," is a prominent constellation located on the celestial equator and visible throughout the world. It is one of the largest, most conspicuous, and most recognizable in the night sky. Its name refers to Orion, a hunter in Greek mythology.

So i probably snapped off two or so dozen photo's of this Constellation, adjusting iso and settings to get something i really would like. Here is one of those images, now i have never shot any Astronomy stuff so i felt this was really good for myself and alot better than what i thought i would get.

Now i know the image is noisy but what do you expect when shooting at ISO3200.

So i was about ready to pack it all up and head inside due to one of the largest phone fights i have ever been in with someone i really care about so it made me in a very bad mood but then i looked back up at the sky and started noticing some really thin clouds moving through the sky and i figured with the light pollution coming from the north it could create for some amazing gas like looks so i decided to hang around for several more minutes before i pulled my hair out. So i ended up being very happy with what i got straight out of the camera, the only post work i did was boost the contrast and sharpen it a tad as well as remove some of the noise. So overall i felt like this was a gift from Orion himself, trying to cheer me up.

Well in case some of you dont know the Leonid Meteor Shower should be picking up here tomorrow evening and peaking between Tuesday morning before dawn and Wednesday before dawn as well. So i hope to go out and catch some of that tomorrow evening if i can as well!

Well i hope everyone had a fantastic weekend.

EXIF

Canon 50D
50mm
8sec
f1.8
iso3200

[Adrena1in]

Hi ya, thanks for posting this, Orion's my all-time favourite constellation...loved it as a kid for some reason, and even now, that I'm into astronomy and astrophotography, it's got some fantastic targets. The other night with my 11 SCT I was losing myseld in the Orion nebula, which looked fantastic.

Did you crop the image at all? I can see the clouds and light pollution might have been causing a few problems down nearer the bottom, but I would've showed a little more further down. However, the 50mm isn't wide enough to get in the entire constellation, but you certainly got all the best bits and that's a good shot, I like it. (I should spend more time constellation hunting, and you've inspired me to hook up my nifty fifty to my tracking mount soon and try to recreate your shot.)

[Cameron Cushman]

Thank you. I must say i feel like now i am going to want to get much more into this whole astronomy thing.

There was no crop done to the image, i knew the 50mm wouldnt be wide enough but i figured i would give it a try, and when i showed someone the image they said i had caught most of the constellation. Hope to see your version of the image

[MintMark]

That is a good picture. I like the effect of the clouds and I can't see any star trailing either.

I agree that Orion is inspirational. This time last year I took my first astro photo... it was my little ixus on a tabletop tripod stood on a wall and pointing at Orion. Wanting to imrove on that shot has motivated me all year! Now I have a dslr and a tracking mount, and I bought a 35mm lens just for Orion. I have yet to take the picture... I'll wait for it to come round earlier in the evening.

I've attached the image from my ixus... it looks like I even stacked a few of them. Nowhere near as good as yours and plenty of room for improvement for me!

[Mike Salway]

Well done, nice result.

[SteveInNZ]

It may not be for the best technical reasons or entirely intentional, but your picture looks very Akira Fujii-like to me. He was an astrophotographer who was/is considered the master of constellation photos. His technique made the brighter stars appear bigger and you could make out the constellation easily while still having lots of faint detail. Not bad for film.
I like your image for the same reasons.

Steve.