This image features the Milky Way as it crosses the constellation Orion. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky blazes blue-white in the lower left, Betelgeuse's orange glow marks one shoulder of Orion, and Aldebaran glows as the eye of the bull Taurus in the upper right. A number of deep sky objects are visible in this image, including the Great Orion Nebula in the sword, the crescent of Barnard's Loop, the Rosette Nebula, Christmas Tree Cluster, Sh2-264, and more than a dozen open clusters.
This image was shot with a Canon 300D using the kit lens. The camera was piggybacked to a motor driven telescope mount. This is a composite of 3, 10-minute exposures at f/3.5 with a focal length of 18 mm at ISO 800. Dark frames and flat fields were applied as well as manual sky gradient removal. Curves were used to adjust for color cast and to better saturate HII nebulosity.
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