In an amazing twist on timelapse videos of the night sky, physicist and photographer Isidro Villo outfitted his camera with an automated mega-zoom lens, and captured the journey from the ground to the great Orion Nebula in this video found on DIY Photography and Petapixel.
Villo spent a couple of years developing the perfect rig to accomplish the feat of zooming in extremely far at a steady rate while managing focus and exposure. The setup included a Sigma 50-500mm F4.5-6.3 APO lens with a 2x teleconverter combined with a Meade LX80 telescope. The screenshot below shows part of the setup attached to a mechanical zoom / focus controller.
