365 / 35: Constellation Orion

Confession time: My interest in photography began with the stars. I've been a nut for space for as long as I can remember, and shortly after I bought my first telescope at the age of 13 (which I still have) I also ponied up some of my hard-earned lawn mowing money to buy a camera adapter for the family's Canon AE-1 so I could shoot through-the-telescope astro photos (I still have that adapter, by the way).

There was just one problem... I was terrible at astrophotography. This was back in the days of film, mind you, so it was very challenging. Add to that the fact that I had no clue about photography, and it's no surprise I burned through a whole lot of film rolls to get exactly zero good images. Fast forward to today. I've learned (with Lisa's help and patience) a great deal about photography. Digital makes astrophotography infinitely easier. Seriously. Unfortunately, despite all that, I still stink at astrophotography, the one photographic discipline I really, really want to be great at. Part of that stems from equipment problems--I've only got a primitive, 30-plus year old clock motor on my telescope mount for tracking, which limits deep sky and long-exposure images. My high-quality telescope mirror got damaged by a company I'd sent it off to for resurfacing, and the replacement mirror I have is not quite as good. But mostly the fault lies with me. I don't have the instincts for it--every little aspect I have to struggle with, while I've seen other comparable amateur astronomers take jaw-dropping images their first night out. Someday I'll get it, but it may take a while. Until then, here's my Picture of the Day for today, a series of stacked images of the constellation Orion taken between midnight and 1 a.m. this morning. And yes, I am indeed tired today.

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon EF 50mm 1.8 mark I

Lisa On Location Photography

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