One of my goals this month was to capture the constellation Orion using a wide angle lens. Several months ago I purchased the Tamron 35mm f/1.4 Di USD lens. This is a very good wide-angle lens for astrophotography because the stars remain sharp in the corners. I have written about this lens in a previous post.

A good reason to photograph Orion with a wide angle lens is the abundance of interesting objects that are near and surround Orion. These include the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, the Witch Head Nebula, Rosetta Nebula, Flame Nebula, and Barnards Loop, among others.

I shot 40 two-minute images (80 minutes total exposure) at f/2.8 and ISO 400 and then stacked them using Siril. I also ran a star reduction algorithm to remove some of the stars so that the gas clouds would be more visible. Here are the results of that astrophotography session.

Next I would like to use a large telephoto lens to zoom in on some of these objects. Now I just need to wait for the Moon to shift into the early morning hours.