The Orion Nebula in Orion Nebula, Canon 7D camera, 300mm lens, and an iOptron Sky Tracker.

It was 10 years ago tonight, March 10, 2016 at 11:04 pm. I had acquired a simple star tracker and was ready to test it out.  I set up in a park west of Lamoni Iowa. I was using a 70-300mm lens on a Canon 5D Mark III. The aperture was f/11 and the shutter was open for 177 seconds. Without the star tracker my shutter speed would have been limited to about 1-2 seconds to prevent the everything from blurring due to earth’s rotation.

This is the set up. The iOptron star tracker is the box at the bottom. The round ring rotates in sync with the night sky. To learn how to use one see the link below/

Orion’s belt (top three stars), sword, and the Orion Nebula in the middle of the sword.

Link

“How To” Series: Astrophotography with the iOptron SkyTracker