Orion and Sirius rising over the Peloncillo Mountains of southwest New Mexico

Orion and Sirius rising over the Peloncillo Mountains of southwest New Mexico, on a clear night in December in the early evening The Belt stars of Orion point down to Sirius, the Dog Star The long tracked exposures and the filter-modified camera brings out the red nebulsity in the area, such as Barnard’s Loop, the Lambda Orionis bubble at top, the Horsehead Nebula area near the Belt, the very bright Orion Nebula, and the intense Rosette Nebula at left Airglow add some bands of red and green toward the horizon This is a mean-combined stack of 5 tracked exposures for the sky, each 25 minutes at ISO 1600, and 3 short 30-second but also tracked exposures for the ground at ISO 6400, again mean combined to smooth noise As the ground exposures were also tracked, the ground is blurred slightly An additional short exposure taken through a Kenko Softon A filter blended in with Lighten mode adds the star glows for accentuating star colours and the prominence of bright stars All with the 35mm Canon L-series lens at f/25 and Canon 5D MkII camera, on the Star Adventurer Mini tracker, and shot from the Quailway Cottage in SE Arizona. (Photo by: Alan Dyer/VW Pics/UIG via Getty Images)