Orion + witch's head, unfortunately with a dewed lens.

[pipnina]

I stood outside in the cold for nearly an hour taking the subs for this image, only to find out more than half the frames had been affected by condensation on the lens. Still,  it's brought out M42 quite well and the witch's head is poking out of the noise, so it's not all bad.

I've already ordered a dew heater. Camera's probably going to end up warmer than me

[xtreemchaos]

great shot Pipp, I hoping for a go later if theres a gap in the cloud. charl.

[astro mick]

Still a very nice image.

Mick.

[Ben the Ignorant]

Don't necessarily consider halos a defect, some imagers add a blur "filter" in front of the objective to create them. The halo highlights a star's color thanks to the larger tinted area, and it also expresses the star's brillance: the bigger the halo, the more prominent the star, with minor stars having none. This makes for an obvious hierarchy in the picture.

Tulle wrapped around the objective works well, slightly scratched glass works, too, but you have to find a large enough piece to cover the objective. Easy with telephotos (old UV filter), not so much with larger dedicated astro telescopes. I suppose a colorless 1.25" or 2" filter with a light scratching would give the same effect, with the possibility of placing it inside the optical train.

I did a few trials with some transparent plastic wrapping, the foils having the smallest pebbling did well. Some chocolate boxes had the ideal wrapping, very fine and regular texture. The larger the gift box, the larger the telescope can be!