Sword of Orion taken from Timor Cottage, Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia, December 13, 2010. This is a stack of 5 x 7 minute exposures at ISO 800 with Canon 5D MkII camera on 77mm Borg astrographic lens at f/4.2 (~300mm focal length). Contain M42 and M43 the Orion Nebula; the Horsehead Nebula; and NGC 2024 the Flame Nebula.
A constellation portrait of Auriga (upper left), Taurus (bottom), and Perseus (top), framing the large finger-like Taurus Dark Clouds in this dusty region of the outer Milky Way. Included are several of the bright pink emission nebulas in this part of the Milky Way, notably the California Nebula at top and the Flaming Star complex at centre. At bottom left is the star cluster Messier 35 in Gemini and several of the bright nebulas near it. At right is the blue Pleiades star cluster. At bottom right is the large Hyades star cluster. The trio of Messier clusters in Auriga, M36, M37, and M38, also show up on this scale. Aldebaran is at bottom; Capella is at top. This is a stack of 22 x 4-minute exposures with the 28-70mm Canon RF lens at f/2.8 and 35mm, on the Canon Ra, shooting through an URTH Night broadband light pollution filter. A final exposure through an Alyn Wallace/Kase StarGlow filter added the glows on stars. The camera was on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker (every frame was usable). Bands of red airglow drifted through the frame during the sequence of shots but the stacking smoothed out their discolouration of the sky.
