The Great Orion Nebula as Seen From the Backyard

The Great Orion Nebula, originally uploaded by DJMcCrady.

Looking at the subject you'd think this is some sort of joke. A friend of mine does some really incredible astrophotography from his backyard here in Redmond -- when it isn't raining. :)

I think this is one of his better images. Not that any of them are bad but this one really shines.

He uses a camera with a liquid cooled sensor along with a motorized tripod that rotates the camera to compensate for the earth's rotation. He'll shoot a number of relatively short (ten to thirty minute) exposures and then merge them in post-processing. Much of the process prior to post-processing is automated.