Orion is not only home to the famous Orion and Horsehead nebula but it is also filled with lots of dust and faintly glowing hydrogen. The bright newborn stars of the area illuminate the interstellar gas and dust, creating a smoky, glowing background.
The Rosette nebula is a large and relatively bright emission nebula in the constellation Monoceros. Various parts of the nebula have separate NGC numbers and the embedded star cluster itself is NGC2244
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During the last weeks southerly winds brought warm weather and Sahara dust to our skies. On Thursday the dust had settled enough to make the night clear enough to set up the small refractor again.
Read MoreSurprisingly tonight the sky was reasonably clear, so I set up the Vixen Polarie with the Takahashi FS-60CB on top.
With the Z6 now my main camera for general photography I sent of my trusty Nikon D750 to modify it by filter removal. The camera is now still fully functional, but he color temperature settings are off, and red response has changed significantly. With the ongoing bad weather I was happy to have an evening with reasonably clear skies and set up the Baby Tak on the Vixen Polarie with the D750a using an L-enhance filter. While the camera capturing 30s exposures I used another scope on the big mount to photograph Mars.
