Orion's Belt & Nebula M42

Hi all, The skies cleared up for about 2 hours last night, and what a night!! Transparency was absolutly superb I've never seen a sky so clear in a long time! so I set up to drive 12miles away to my darksite, and quickly set about imaging Orion's belt and the Orion Nebula M42.

I've been waiting to image this famous area of the sky since last September, but have now only had the chance. This is a stack of 5 exposures, 4x300secs IS0400, 1x180secs ISO800, 23minutes in total with a Canon300D / Canon ef 85mm lens at f4, I would have liked a lot more 'luminance', but the clouds rolled back in - typical I would have happily imaged for hours

I'm very pleased with this shot as the night was superb, i'll try for better next time! Hope you think it's to your liking, You can easily see M42, the flame nebula NGC2024, M78 to upper left of the belt, and a hint of Barnard's loop...Also M43, NGC1981, and a hint of the 'horsehead' nebula.
Keith..

fine image keith! the flame nebuila came out very well.

Once again Keith, you've produced another superb image.
Its great to see it that area again, I havent had a decent look through the scope at all so far this year so I'm starting to get withdrawl symptoms.
the background on the left looks more red then on the right, hints of barnards loop perhaps?

the background on the left looks more red then on the right, hints of barnards loop perhaps?

Yep, It's Barnard's loop alright, i'm surprised it came out so 'well'

Keith..

you can just about make out the shape of the horsehead in the nebula as well.

Great pictue Keith! It is a rare sight to see M43, M42 the Flame and the Horsehead together! Great going!