Orion has long been my favourite constellation. I can still vividly recall the first time I “saw” it as a kid living in rural Saskatchewan and it left such a lasting impression that I even have it tattooed on me. It’s a beacon in the winter sky and a region of space rich in a colourful nebulosity that’s invisible to the naked eye but that can be revealed through long exposure photography in different wavelengths of light, notably hydrogen alpha (Ha). This general area is known as the Orion Molecular Complex and includes Barnard’s Loop, the Lambda Orionis Ring, the Monocerus R2 Cloud, the Orion A and B Clouds, the Northern Filament and more.

Over the years, the use of astro modified cameras, Ha filters and star trackers has allowed nightscape photographers to bring these invisible, red/pink elements of Orion to life in incredible ways, creating a new layer of interest in a winter night sky that’s not quite as flashy as the milky way core dominated skies of spring and summer.

I’ve long wanted to shoot Orion in this manner so when the good folks at Move Shoot Move (MSM) reached out at the end of October offering to send me one of their compact Nomad star trackers to try, I knew exactly what my target would be. But the stars needed to align, figuratively and literally, in a few different ways and with some other new pieces of kit that also needed to arrive before I could bring my visions to life.

First up, for those who might not know, what is a star tracker? In a nutshell, a star tracker is a small motor that moves at the exact same speed as the rotation of the earth allowing photographers to take much longer, tack-sharp, exposures of the night sky with no star trailing – an effect that captures the rotation of the earth relative to the stars when a long exposure is left open for too long. Now, sometimes a star trail is the desired effect, but typically when we’re imaging the night sky, we want tack-sharp stars and a tracker allows us to capture more light with longer exposures. Using one requires polar aligning the tracker with Polaris (the North Star) to counteract field rotation.

I’ve had a Star Adventurer tracker for many years and barely used it. It’s a great piece of equipment but it’s also big, heavy and somewhat intimidating to use. To compound issues, I misunderstood how to polar align it for wide-field nightscapes (note: you don’t need to fully align it using the polar scope, just roughly using a handy laser) and it sat unused until this past October, coincidentally when my MSM Nomad was on its way. Comparatively, the Nomad is significantly smaller, lighter (only 430g) and easier to use which makes transport and set up a breeze.

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The tracker arrived in early November and I was keen to pair it with my Nikon Z6II, which I recently had astro-modified by Night Sky Camera in B.C. This conversion removes certain filters inside the camera to make it more sensitive to Ha wavelengths and when paired with an additional Ha filter, the red nebulously found throughout the night sky that’s invisible to the naked eye becomes visible to the camera. My camera had been modified since the spring but I had barely used it during the summer months as I typically prefer shooting standard images of the milky way core.

Alright, I now had my astro-modified camera and my MSM Nomad tracker. All I needed was an Ha filter. Enter my good friend, Monika Deviat, who, right around when the tracker arrived, just happened to find an Astronomik clip-in filter she thought she had lost and replaced. Serendipity! Almost. I still had to make my way to Canmore to get it from her and the weather had other plans for a few weeks. Finally, at the end of the year, we got together and my last required piece was in hand – all that remained was finding the right time to get out in the field with it all.

And after my trip to Mexico in January, I came home with every intention of doing just that. The no moon cycle started on February 5th and I made a point to get out every clear night that I could. Orion was in the sky early and thankfully, the temperatures were unseasonably warm as well, which helped significantly as it’s typically very, very cold around these parts in February. My first night out was technically successful but also a bit of an expected disaster. In theory I knew how all of this stuff worked and had tested it all individually…but not all at once and not in a snowy, dark field 100km from home.

Setting up the tracker was a breeze. MSM has made the Nomad almost too easy to set up and polar align with the included laser. It comes with a built-in Arca-Swiss plate and has an option for a different screw-in plate if you’re like me and don’t typically use Arca-Swiss stuff. The only additional thing you need to have is another ball head that you secure to the motor and to which your camera attaches. Some folks opt to use a wedge or Z-plate as well (which I have) but thus far I haven’t found it really necessary (these become more helpful when doing large panos). By adjusting your first ball head to visually align the laser with Polaris, you simply attach your camera to the second ballhead and carefully set your composition. Easy, breezy.

Most of the issues I had that first night were with some of the settings I was unaware of in my Nikon Z6II; most of which may have changed during the factory reset done during the conversion. All of it minor, all of it user error and all of it fixed with some Google searches on a rapidly draining phone battery.

The next learning curve came from trying to focus the camera with the Astronomik filter clipped in place. Easily done but for anyone reading this, know that your focus point is significantly different than without the filter and you will need to refocus between the Ha and RGB shots. And it’s much harder to see through so you need to find the brightest star (like Sirius) to focus on.

I also used the Alyn Wallace Star Glow filter as my final piece in the equipment puzzle. This filter blurs the stars and gives them a very soft “glow.”

Using a prime lens is also key for this type of work as you may inadvertently change your focal length when using a variable lens, which will ultimately affect things in post. I used my Nikkor Z 20mm 1.8 S for this.

As I mentioned, I encountered a lot of expected trial and error during my first night in the field. Despite the hiccups, I learned what worked and what didn’t and was really pleased with the final result. It all helped me dial in a standardized process for the field work which I improved on each subsequent night.

I did six, one minute long exposures with the Nomad in both RGB and Ha and a 15 second exposure with the Star Glow filter in addition to my foreground shot (which you need to take separately and untracked, then blend in Photoshop). Learning to post-process this image was incredibly challenging, and I didn’t quite get it right, so I won’t be going over what I did and will instead link to a couple of great tutorials. I did improve on it for subsequent shoots, however. I should also point out that you don’t need an Ha filter to image the reddish pink elements of the Orion Molecular Complex when using an astro-modified camera but the Ha filter really enhances it.

During my second outing, this time photographing old limber pines in a snow-free Southern Alberta, I used that dialled-in process to capture a shot I’m very happy with. Again, a few hiccups happened along the way but it worked out great in the end.

By the third night I was feeling much more confident in my abilities both in the field and in post. I returned to the location where I captured my Canadian Geographic Photographer of the Year image and set about creating a companion shot to it. I used relatively the same techniques as the previous nights but it felt much more streamlined – Ha to RGB to Star Glow to foreground images. I really stretched myself with the post-processing and the result is not just my best of the bunch, but arguably one of my favourite nightscapes I’ve ever taken.

I also visited a second abandoned property that evening and set up a star trail on my Z8 which I left running deep in a field over a kilometre away while I did the above Ha/RGB Orion shoot. It also required significant new post-processing efforts but I’m thrilled with the way it turned out too. I utilized Lincoln Harrison’s star trail tutorial for this as I’ve long admired his astro work. This shot is composed of 275 images: 270 for the sky, 4 for the interior lighting and 1 for the building/foreground.

The further along we get in photography, the harder it often becomes to push our comfort levels and continuing education. There’s always something new to learn and new avenues to pursue. If you’ve followed my photography journey, you’ll know that I taught myself photography with the night sky in 2015 and have actively been shooting it since. In January 2024 I decided I was going to make a concerted effort to up my night photography game and have pushed myself more and more each year. New equipment, new software, new ways of thinking. These images are a result of that continued effort and I look forward to using my new skills and tools to keep pushing myself further and further.

Interested in purchasing any of the things I mentioned here?

MSM Nomad: Use this link and code LIGHTCHASERS to receive a 5% discount! https://www.moveshootmove.com/collections/msm-nomad?aff=656

Night Sky Camera: https://nightskycamera.com

Astronomik Filters: https://www.astronomik.com