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I went out to photograph the moonrise last night and remembered that the Orion nebula [M42] is supposed to be overhead at this time. I easily spotted the Orion Constellation but it was directly overhead and my tripod isn't designed to point that way. With no telescope and no tracking ability - and using a Mac so no stacking ability either... I managed to capture this image handheld by holding my camera against the side of my car as I crouched on the ground for a 4 second exposure. Surprised to see there was some color too. Now I wonder how I'd go if I had (and understood) access to a tracking array.
Just edited this earlier today by tweaking it slightly in Photoshop. I know, it's crap. But I was amazed to see my first nebula on the LCD of my camera. I did NOT expect to be able to photograph it (especially hand-held ... although this Canon lens has a 4-stop I.S.).
Camera: Canon EOSM (Mk1) Mirrorless.
Lens: Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
I just visited my local telescope store last week to buy an inexpensive Bahtinov focus mask for my lenses to assure better focus at night. I saw some incredible photographs at the store taken with the smallest of their telescopes. All on very expensive mounts with tracking. The guy at the store told me that the mount is always more important than anything else you buy (other than the telescope). You probably don't need to spend crazy money if you just want to clip your camera to the back of it. Some of the really affordable Celestron telescopes (eg Celestron Nextstar 5?) have a wedge built-in to the base - which enables you to track objects with your camera mounted right where the eyepiece is... or clipped to the tube. A wedge gives your system the ability to better track with the Earth's rotation.
I was so impressed with the fun I had with my camera last night that I really do want a telescope now. I'd love to see what I can get whilst tracking a nebula. You'll want at least 200mm lens or higher though.