My first serious astrophotography attempts - Orion from Mount Stromlo

Orion Constellation

At the last meeting of the Canberra Astronomical Society I got some tips to help me overcome problems I had been having getting my new DSLR camera to fire when trying to take night sky photos. Main tip - disable Autofocus! Light bulb moment.

So armed with this new knowledge and walking out of the meeting to a clear (if light-polluted) sky, I decided to say up on the mountain for a while and try it out.

A wider shot, including the laser dome

Click on any of the pictures to embiggerate them.
Above the dome of the EOS space junk tracking observatory, the constellation of Orion is showing nicely. The "big dipper" is lying on its side with the "handle" heading up and out of shot. The bright star to the left is Rigel, the orange star to the far right is Betelguese - a red giant that will go supernova any day now (or within the next thousand years!). And if you look about a third of the way along from the left near the top, in the "handle" you'll see one fuzzy 'star' which is actually the Great Orion Nebula - the closest star forming region to us at about 1500 light years distance.

Also taken on the night was this pleasing shot of the Southern Cross. It's lying on its side because that was the orientation when I took it. Look at the 'bottom' star of the cross as shown (the left star when it is right way up) then note the fuzzy 'star' a short distance from it at 5 o'clock. That is actual The Jewel Box (NGC 4755) - an open cluster - a collection of about 100 beautifully coloured stars.

And lastly, the tracking laser came to life while I was there. Although my photos couldn't pick up the bean itself (even tough I could see it), you can see the green of the beam as it leaves the dome.

The main dome was lit in this picture as the security lighting was triggered by a kangaroo!

Anyway, I was pretty pleased with these as a first attempt.