What are the odds? Two weekends in a row with clear skies in January. The forecast was excellent, so I was surprised while driving through Aurora and Newmarket to see light pillars all over the place. Fortunately, (and typically) once east of Lake Simcoe it cleared up. The waxing crescent moon was pretty bright, and with newly fallen snow on the ground it was difficult to see fainter objects to the west. In fact, it was very hard to locate M31.
It got down to -20°C, but there was no wind. Once the moon set, the SQM was 21.27. The following images were taken with a Canon 90d, and a Canon 300 f/4 lens on a Star Adventurer. The location was Carden Alvar Provincial Park.
This is about 7 minutes (14 frames) of Messier 45:
This is 207 frames stacked for an 87 minute exposure of the Rosette Nebula with NGC 2244. It was visible naked eye using averted vision once the Moon had set.
I wrote a beautiful poem to commemorate the occasion:
Rosettes are red Pleiades is blue My hands are cold And my balls are frozen too