Nothing says "Happy New Year" like the brilliant constellation of Orion.

I remember as a child in PA being outdoors at night―snow up to my keester―and looking up at its glorious figure. In fact, there was one point where I believed I had actually "discovered" the three stars in its center that form a nearly perfectly straight line!

Those three stars form the "belt" of the great hunter, with his shoulders to the upper left and his knees marked by stars on the lower right.  By following the "belt" upward one comes to the bright star Aldebaran, the main star in the constellation Taurus, the bull.  By following it downward, we find the most brilliant star in the night sky:  Sirius, the dog star.

To get this shot, I managed to break away from my Night Sky Photography workshop for a few minutes;  learn to take similar night sky photos with little more than a camera and tripod in my upcoming workshop on January 28/29, 2012!

●   Date / Time:  January 30, 2010 / 6:56 p.m. PST
●   Photo Details:  Canon EOS 20D, Canon 14mm f/2.8L lens, ISO 400, 20 seconds at f/2.8
●   Processing Details:  Lightroom 3.5, Noise Ninja 2.3.2, Photoshop CS2, StarSpikes Pro
●   Location:  Borrego Springs, California, USA