Here is the first image from my remote Texas telescope. In the film Blade Runner, Rutger Haur's Roy Batty character says: 'I've seen things you wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion'. If he'd have looked a little further, he'd have seen the Rosette Nebula, which also sits off the shoulder of Orion. It's a naturally well composed and photogenic target, whichever rotation and framing you deploy. Posing for Instagram perhaps.

It’s been hard work getting the Texas gear in place, dialled in and calibrated, so it’s a relief to finally have a finished image. You can see in the webcam image that the telescope is pointing at that part of the sky with Orion clearly visible two-third of the way in at the bootom of the frame. A central, open cluster of stars emit stellar winds that carve out this shape in the gas and dust. It’s a rosette, or is it a skull?

Telescope: ZWO FF107

Camera: ZWO 2600MM Pro

Mount: ZWO AM5n

Total exposure: 9h 30m

Ha 43x300, OIII 37x300, SII 29x300