Dawn of Orion [Explored]

This deepscape image shows the sword of Orion rising over a scenic mountain formation in central Switzerland. The famous Orion Nebula, the Horsehead and Flame Nebula and part of Barnard's Loop are coloring the sky in a stunning way.

 

Deepscapes are an attempt to take landscape astrophotography to the next level. This image is not a digital art collage of an unrelated sky and foreground, but a real alignment. A snowshoe hike with a mobile deep sky imaging rig to a carefully planned site on a mountain slope was required to capture this scene. Foreground and sky were captured back to back during the same night and from the same tripod position.

 

Capturing and processing the image required both deep space and landscape astrophotography techniques. The foreground and RGB color image of the sky were captured with an astro-modified Canon EOS 6D and a 200mm lens. The sky image was enhanced with 55min of H-alpha data captured with a cooled monochrome astrophotography camera through a narrowband filter.

 

Prints available: ralf-rohner.pixels.com

 

EXIF

Canon EOS 6D, astro-modified

ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L @ f/4

Skywatcher AZ-GTI controlled with ASIair

ZWO ASI 385MC autoguide camera

 

Sky:

- for RGB:

- astro-modified Canon EOS 6D @ISO1600, f/4, 200mm

- 50 x 40s

- 7 x 20s

- 7 x 10s

- 7 x 5s

- for H-alpha

- ZWO ASI 1600MM Pro @ Gain 220

- 11 x 300s with Baader 3,5nm ultra-narrowband H-alpha filter

- 96mm to match the FOV of the 200mm full frame image for foreground and RGB

 

Foreground:

Single exposure of 60s @ ISO1600, f/2.8, 200mm taken during the same night and at the same tripod position

Done