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<blockquote data-quote="BF Hammer" data-source="post: 825505" data-attributes="member: 48483">Orion nebula is the most visible nebula in sky. You would likely mistake it for a star in the &quot;dagger&quot; below Orion's belt. It is easy to over-expose it. In winter Orion is the dominant constellation and most people learn to recognize it like the big dipper. There are certain other constellations I pick out instantly like Cassiopeia and Hercules.Have you tried the Stellarium phone app? Pretty decent for a quick check where an object should be in the field. It won't do the trick other apps do though where it displays on screen what it is aimed at, but it's free.Another target that would work good is Pleiades (star cluster). It is quite bright in the sky and is rising ahead of Orion this time of year earlier in the night.&nbsp; It does have some nebulosity in the cluster, but it is hard to show it without a large exposure stack.Really for camera settings, just go to manual mode. Some things like aperture will always be wide-open unless you are shooting Jupiter (typically I have done that at f/8). Go right up to ISO 1600 and it may be necessary to go to ISO 6400 (no auto ISO for this). Then shutter is going to be limited by the fact you are not using a tracker yet. Longer focal length, faster shutter. Take test photos and adjust.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="BF Hammer, post: 825505, member: 48483"] Orion nebula is the most visible nebula in sky. You would likely mistake it for a star in the "dagger" below Orion's belt. It is easy to over-expose it. In winter Orion is the dominant constellation and most people learn to recognize it like the big dipper. There are certain other constellations I pick out instantly like Cassiopeia and Hercules. Have you tried the Stellarium phone app? Pretty decent for a quick check where an object should be in the field. It won't do the trick other apps do though where it displays on screen what it is aimed at, but it's free. Another target that would work good is Pleiades (star cluster). It is quite bright in the sky and is rising ahead of Orion this time of year earlier in the night. It does have some nebulosity in the cluster, but it is hard to show it without a large exposure stack. Really for camera settings, just go to manual mode. Some things like aperture will always be wide-open unless you are shooting Jupiter (typically I have done that at f/8). Go right up to ISO 1600 and it may be necessary to go to ISO 6400 (no auto ISO for this). Then shutter is going to be limited by the fact you are not using a tracker yet. Longer focal length, faster shutter. Take test photos and adjust. [/QUOTE]

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