A telescope is not needed to obtain good wide-field images of the night sky, as long as you have an equatorial mount with reasonably good tracking.  The top picture, which shows the sword region of Orion, was taken with just my Canon 400D and a standard zoom lens at a focal length of 200 mm. The bottom picture is an enlarged section of this image that shows, from top to bottom:

  The blue reflection nebula NGC 1975-1977, sometimes called the Running Man Nebula

  Messier 43, the smaller, teardrop shaped portion of the Orion Nebula

  Messier 42, the main section of the Orion Nebula

  A fish-shaped asterism around the bright star, iota Orionis

Image details:  20 images, each 90 seconds at ISO 800 with a Canon 400D camera and 200-mm lens. 

February 2008