Orion on a cold, hazy night

I finally went to a darker site late on December 29th - in the southeast corner of Oklahoma. It was hazy, with high, thin clouds blowing across the sky, but after driving all that way, I went out in the freezing weather, anyway. This is Orion, using my 55mm Micro-Nikkor lens, at f:5.6 to reduce the CA at the edges. I took and stacked 8 images, all at f:5.6 and ISO of 400, but with a lot of different exposure times - 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 x 6 minutes, 7 minutes, 8 minutes, and 10 minutes. I kept extending the exposures to see how long an exposure I could take without introducing problems, but never reached any time limit. The temperature limited my total number of exposures, though. By the time I finished, it was in the lower 20's, and I was, too! All the different exposures resulted in an image that required very little post-processing.

Before I quit, I took 3 shots that included the Andromeda Galaxy and the Triangulum Galaxy. The reddish blur at the bottom is due to one of those high, thin clouds. I wanted to take some more with longer lenses, but was so cold I couldn't function, so I packed up and went back to the warm cabin.

(I wonder why no prime lenses are listed for Nikon? I selected an 18-55mm zoom lens because there is no prime 55mm lens listed.)

Orion looks amazing.

Thanks! (What's weird about being in Canada? We all have to be somewhere... 'Course, I'd choose somewhere warmer in the winter.)

Great capture... You really caught the redness of Betelgeuse