
FirstLook: Orion Through a 3D-Printed Telescope
I had a keen interest in astronomy and the universe around us from an early age, and I crafted my first telescope from cardboard tubes and spectacle lenses when I was 12 years old. I remember looking at the Pleiades star cluster with it and seeing thousands of stars that were invisible to my naked eyes. I was awestruck, and promised myself that when I grow up, I’d make a better telescope!
In 2018 I started tinkering with electronics, robotics and 3D printing. I suddenly had the means to fulfill my childhood dream. In September 2019 I took my first image of a deep-sky object from my rooftop using nothing but a standard mirrorless camera on a tripod.
I had to overcome many technical challenges: tracking the sky precisely, building a reliable rig that can take very long exposures, modifying my camera to be more sensitive to the light emitted by the nebulae, etc.
In 2024, for three nights, I pointed my homemade telescope, made of PVC pipe and 3D-printed parts, at the most famous nebula in the winter night sky. I collected more than 11 hours of data and decided to use the best eight hours of it. After many hours of processing, this is my final image of the great Orion Nebula as seen from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Zubuyer Kaolin is a Bangladeshi astrophotographer who captures breathtaking images beyond Earth’s atmosphere. Learn more about Kaolin, his telescope and his passion for photography at AramcoWorld.com.
@the.z.axis
@zubuyer
zubuyerkaolin.com

You may also be interested in...
Find Ramadan Lanterns on Cairo's Streets with John Feeney
In the March/April 1992 issue, writer and photographer John Feeney took AramcoWorld readers on a walk through the streets of Cairo during Ramadan.In The Marshes Of Iraq
Amidst "the stillness of a world that never knew an engine... he found at last a life he longed to know and share.FirstLook: Rain in Fayoum
I took this photo during a rainy day in November 2018 from the window of my family home in Fayoum, Egypt, located about 100 kilometers southwest of the capital. It hardly rains but a few times in the year in most parts of Egypt, and when it does, it is always something special, bringing Joy and happiness particularly for the local children.