Widefield astrophotography of Orion using the ZWO ASI 294 MCPRO & Olympus 50mm vintage OM lens

Orion widefield astrophotography with ZWO ASI 294MCPRO & Olympus 50 mm lens

  • Lens: Vintage Olympus 50mm OM (manual)
  • Camera: ASI 294 MCPRO
  • Mount: Star Adventurer
  • Alignment: QHY Polemaster
  • Guiding: none
  • Image: 13 * 180 sec subs
  • Gain: 300
  • Temp: 10 Deg C
  • Processing: AstroPixel Processor – lights only
  • Bortle Class 1 site
  • Location: Arkarula, South Australia 3AM and slightly frosty

Imaging at Arkarula, South Australia. After the moon set at 2AM, the night sky was just incredibly dark. I got in around 4 hours of imaging before the sun started to lighten the sky.

Orion widefield at 100% resolution with Witch Head nebula – IC 2118

Being able to capture a glimmer of this faint reflection nebula visible at the top of the following image was a welcome surprise.

Witch Head nebula with ZWO ASI 294 MCPRO and vintage Olympus 50mm lens

Portable widefield astrophotography rig

The ZWO ASI 294 MCPRO one shot CMOS astrophotography colour camera attached with custom made 3D printed brackets to the Skywatcher Star Adventure tracking mount. Black electrical tape was used on the Olympus 50mm lens to lock the focus.

ZWO ASI 294 MCPRO on the Skywatcher Star Adventure tracking mount