The Hunter

The nights have been a bit chilly lately, but the skies have been very clear. On my way home from a buddy’s place, The stars were brighter than I’ve seen them for a while. Despite it being late, I had to try to get a few images. I’ve never taken photos of stars before – I always thought that it would be very difficult. I’ve read a bit about astrological photography; aside from the expensive glass, the pros use cameras with built-in cooling systems to minimize any heat vibrations. They also mount their cameras to tripods specially aligned to the earth’s axis and that have mechanisms that can be automated to compensate for the Earth’s rotation by minutely turning the camera. These photographers can expose for whole nebulas and star clusters that are barely visible to the human eye.

With my camera setup, I’ll settle for this exposure of Orion. It’s a 10 second exposure at 4.5 aperture and 800 ISO. Already there is some motion blur in the image, but the overall shape is there and even the colours of the stars are visible.

Aside from the iconic belt that is made up of three stars, the constellation features Betelgeuse, which is a red giant and said to be the 12th brightest star in the sky and is located at Orion’s right shoulder (it’s the reddish star in the centre near the top of the image). It is reaching the end of its life and when it explodes, it will be visible even during the daytime.

Rigel is another prominent star in the constellation and forms the left foot of Orion (it’s near the centre at the bottom of the image). Rigel is the 6th brightest star in the sky.

Even though Orion is probably the most iconic of constellations in the sky, I can’t say that it’s my favorite. Yet, seeing it in the sky here in Japan is comforting. For me, Orion reminds me of coming home from band practice on Monday or Thursday nights with my dad and my brother. I’d either be carrying my saxophone or my trombone, after stepping out of the van and walking up the front steps to the house. Maybe it was while I was walking up the steps that I’d look up and see the Big Dipper and realize that the stars were out, or maybe it was while we were standing at the top of the stairs waiting for my dad to unlock the front door that I would turn around and see Orion standing to the south overtop of the house across the street. Whatever the reason, the image even smells like autumn band practices.