I live in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, near Lake Superior, in the Northern part of The United States, and started doing Astrophotography in 2018. I haven’t done much Astrophotography in the last year; in fact the only Astro photos I took in 2024 were at the total solar eclipse that crossed the United States on April 8th, due to a combination of personal responsibilities and clouds. The latter part of January this year we finally had some clear nights (and cold; one night was -12F) and I was able to get out and get my First Light image with the Astro-Physics 110GTX that I was able to purchase last November. I chose the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Running Man Nebula (SH 2-279), as photographing the Orion Nebula was the motivation to get started in Astrophotography. I am hoping to get out more often in the near future. My long-term goal is to get the dome that is sitting in pieces in my pole barn put up in my back yard.
Acquisition Details:
Captured in my front yard South of Marquette, Michigan, U.S.A., Bortle 4, SQM 21.4
110GTX with stock 7DII:
-60@10 sec, ISO 1600 (Integrated and used for the Trapezium)
110GTX with Ha-mod 60D
-36@90 sec, ISO 800
-24@60 sec, ISO 1600
Total integration time (excl. Trapezium) 78 minutes
Each series had: 30 Darks, 20 Flats, 30 Dark Flats
Mounted on a vintage AP900HDA, no guiding
Processed in Astro Pixel Processor and Lightroom, with some layer blending in Photoshop. I used Astro Panel to reduce the size of the stars and increase their vibrancy