Surprised by standard zoom lens

[gthomas]

I've seen no end of comments about fixed focus lenses being better than zoom for wide-field work and about stopping down a bit, but for want of a better option I just tried my standard Canon 55-250mm zoom to image the Orion constellation last night. I can't find any way to stop it down so I assume it was wide open.

Having stacked 20 3 to 4 minute subs and done in little processing in PixinsightLE I must say I was surprised at the result. Not a patch on the quality of images normally seen around here but, considering the lens used, it could be a lot worse IMHO.

[Zul]

Wow it looks awesome! I can see flame nebula!

[gthomas]

Exactly. If you look closely the horsey is just there as well. Whats really surprising me is that the stars seem sharp out to the edges.

[Daniel-K]

is all that red suff around bernards loop or is that just LP? great image though well done

[gthomas]

Thanks

I'm pretty sure thats LP as I didn't have a filter on and the camera is unmodded.

There do seem to be some dark lanes out towards betelguese which I wasn't expecting. Maybe just a processing artifact?

[jgs001]

Nice one Glyn. You can stop down by holding the Exposure Compensation button and using the scroll wheel, that directly adjusts the aperture in Manual.

[NGC404]

Excellent image

[gthomas]

Ah, thanks John, missed that. I will give that a try next time.