Backyard Astrophotography Backyard Astrophotography
These are some of my pictures. They're not as good as you'll find elsewhere,
but they're mine.
(Many pictures here serve as links to full size versions.)
Comet Tuttle. Not the bright dynamic show that Comet Holmes was,
but a more predictable. And green.
(17x64sec, 1x zoom, ISO400, 25mm eyepiece, 6" telescope 2008/01/03 9:40 EST)
5 64sec ISO 400 exposures, 4x zoom.
(2008/1/10)
5 64sec ISO 400 exposures, 4x zoom.
(2008/1/4)
16 64sec ISO 400 exposures, 4x zoom.
This beats the down the noise compared to the previous attempt (only 2 frames),
but suffers from a small drift in the tracking.
(2008/1/4)
Mars and the Moon. Both are near opposition, but Mars is 250 times farther away.
A series of ~1/750 sec exposures. 6" telescope 25 mm eyepiece.
(2007/12/23 21:20-21:33)
The Moon is full of interesting detail when you look closely. Lately, I've
simply been taking a bunch of images (especially near the terminator, and
then sorting out the good bits later. This is one nicely lit frame, reduced in scale.
Hiding in the details are features like this: the Gambart C Dome.
The dome is the low round bump at the center of the frame. The Gambart C
crater is to its northeast, and Gambart B is to the southeast.
(2007/12/17)
Mars is back. At this opposition Mars is nice and high in the sky, but
it's not especially close. Here Mars is 16" in diameter.
(2007/12/18)
This image is taken with the 6" telescope and 25 mm eyepiece. It's a
combination of 13 64sec ISO 400 exposures. It's better than my previous effort,
but still not an exciting picture.
(2007/12/18)
After working a while on the Crab Nebula, it was late enough that the Orion
Nebula (Messier 42) had cleared the trees. With the 6" telescope and 25 mm
eyepiece, the nebula can be nicely grouped with the ι Ori complex
to the south. I was very favorably impressed with the first exposure, so I
spent another chunk of time on this target. Here we have a
combination of 12 64sec ISO 400 exposures.
Then, as the camera battery was fading, I decided to use the camera's zoom
to get a more magnified version. This image is composed of only 2 64sec ISO 400
exposures. I'll have to do this again soon, but with a lot more exposures.
It's amazing what a difference increasing aperture makes for this object.
(2007/12/18)
This image is taken with the 6" telescope and 12.5 mm eyepiece. It's a
combination of 5 1/45th sec ISO 100 exposures. These were the best of about 20 exposures.
Most of the rejects were really bad due to the seeing. Castor A and B are only about
4.5" apart, but slowly moving apart.
(2007/11/30)
I had been uncertain if my previous images of Uranus had really resolved
the planet or not. This time to check, I also imaged a similarly bright and
nearby star, just after imaging Uranus. I the digitally juxtaposed the two images.
This seems to show that Uranus is just barely resolved. It's not a true point
source like the star, but most of its spherical appearance is really
just the point spread function of the optical set up.
Uranus : 3.6" diam., 5.82 mag, 10x0.5sec ISO 400 4x zoom exposures, 12.5mm eyepice + 6" telescope.
81 Aqr : 0.0" diam., 6.21 mag, 10x0.5sec ISO 400 4x zoom exposures, 12.5mm eyepice + 6" telescope.
(2007/11/23)
Mars hovers above the IRAM 30m telescope in the spanish Sierra Nevada mountains
as it observes the Orion Nebula (M42) during the inaugural run of the GISMO
instrument. (2007/11/09)
Oct 27 - Nov1
| Oct 27 - Nov1 | Nov 16 |  |
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On October 24, a faint comet out between Mars and Jupiter suddenly brightened by a factor of nearly 1,000,000. I didn't get clear weather for photography until 3 days later. After that there were 6 clear nights. These are my results that illustrate the rapidly expanding comet and it's motion across the sky. All these photos are composites of 8-13 32 sec ISO 100 exposures at 1x zoom with a Kodak Z730 pointed through a 25 mm eyepiece in a 6"f/6 reflector. I made minimal adjustment to background levels to account for changing moonlight and light polution, but otherwise the image brightnesses are unaltered.
Nov 16: Travel and poor weather have delayed more pictures until now.
The comet is much fainter and bigger. The telescopic image is a composite of
8x64sec ISO 400 exposures, and covers a region that is twice as large as the
October animated sequence. The 1.8 mag star Mirfak (α Per) appears in the lower
right corner. The wider field picture is a composite of 6x64 ISO 400 pictures
at 4x zoom; the telescope was just a tracking mount for the camera in this case.
The brighter stars here are the Perseus OB association.
NGC 40: I don't recall ever looking at NGC 40 before. It was a pleasant surprise that this
planetary nebula was this large and bright. The red color is also somewhat
unusual compared to the more typical greenish color. The star to the southwest
is 13.0 mag and 58" away from the nebula.
(12x64sec exposures, ISO 400, 4x zoom, 25mm eyepiece + nebular filter, 6" scope; 2007/10/15)
NGC 7662: Previously I was happy to get a fuzzy blue dot. Now it's quite nice to be able to resolve the basic structure of the nebula. The star to the northeast is 13.9 mag and 50" away from the nebula. (12x64sec exposures, ISO 400, 4x zoom, 12.5mm eyepiece, 6" scope; 2007/10/20)
NGC 1501: Here's another entirely new PN. Not a terrible great image, but one of my deepest. The faintest stars are 16th magnitude. (21x64sec exposures, ISO 400, 4x zoom, 25mm eyepiece + nebular filter, 6" scope; 2007/11/01)
While waiting for NGC 253 to clear the trees, I killed time (and some battery power)
shooting several frames of the Double Cluster. The f/6 6" telescope provides a
wide enough field of view to easily show both clusters.
(10x64sec exposures, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece, 6" scope; 2007/10/13)
One good clear night with the 6" scope yielded such an improvement over the earlier
attempt at this galaxy, that I targeted it again the next night. The combined
image here is pleasant surprise to me. It really does look like a nearly edge-on
barred spiral galaxy. Given the galaxy's low elevation, and consequently high
background brightness, the background subtraction was very important here.
(26x64sec exposures, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece, 6" scope; 2007/10/12+13)
α PsA = Fomalhaut. 1.16 mag, A3 V, 25.1 ly distant. (2x32sec ISO 400 at 1x zoom)
β And = Mirach. 2.06 mag, M0 III, 199 ly distant. (1x32sec ISO 400 at 4x zoom)
γ And = Almach. 2.26 + 4.84 mag, K3 IIb + B8 V, 355 ly distant. (4x1/60sec ISO 400 at 4x zoom)
Open clusters Messier 103 and NGC 663 in Cassiopeia. The larger, linked versions
look better. They might look better still if I try again on a night without
a nearly full moon.
(12x32sec exposures, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece, 6" scope; 2007/09/23)
On this evening the moon was nearly full, but I tried a couple of southern
deep-sky objects before they're gone for the season. The picture at left shows
Messier 55. This globular cluster is large (the picture is the
same scale as those of M2 and M5 below). It's also bright, although its far
southern declination dims it substantially.
The right hand picture shows Messier 17, the "Omega" or "Swan" nebula.
Despite a high surface brightness, I've often had trouble locating this nebula.
A "goto" telescope makes this much easier of course.
(M55: 12x32sec exposures, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece, 6" scope
M17: 12x32sec exposures, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece + nebular filter, 6" scope
2007/09/23)
This image shows a very faint arc of emission that is a part of the Veil Nebula (a complex filamentary arc at visible wavelengths), which in turn is a part of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant (a large shell 3 degrees across, but best seen at X-ray, mid-infrared, or radio wavelengths). This image is a composite of 13 64-sec ISO 400 exposures with a 25 mm eyepiece on my 6" telescope. Stars as faint as 15th mag are visible here. Just to the lower right of the brightest star (toward the bottom-left of the image) is a faint and very red star. At near-IR wavelengths this star is much brighter than its neighbors. At mid-IR (wavelengths (12 μm) this star is the brightest in the entire field shown here. Presumably it's a red giant star with a high mass loss rate and a very dusty envelope. I'd noticed that star while working with IRAS data, but had never tried to track it down at other wavelengths or in the literature. (2007/09/19)
This image is a composite of 14 32-sec, ISO 400, 2x zoom exposures with a 25 mm eyepiece on my 6" telescope. Stars as faint as 15th mag are visible here. (2007/09/19)
M 15
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M 2
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M 27 |
NGC 7009
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Altair
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μ Cep
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More results from my old
f/6 6" reflector on a new Meade LXD75 mount.
([M15,2,27] = [10,10,12] x [32,32,32]sec,
NGC 7009 = 5 x 24sec,
[Altair, μ Cep] = [1,1] x [32,64]sec; 6" scope, ISO 400, 25mm eyepiece; 2007/09/15+16)
M 31
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M 52 M 76 
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These are the results from my first night of astrophotography with my old
f/6 6" reflector on a new Meade LXD75 mount. The old Edmund Scientific mount had
no motors, and thus - despite being fine for visual observing - the telescope
could only be used for very short photographic exposures (mostly the Moon).
M52 was my first target. I knew it would be pretty easy. I was surprised to
find that I could take 32-sec exposures with little or no trailing in the image.
Then I tried M31 and could see immediately that the 6" was doing far better
than the ETX-105 that I had been using. Finally I went to the planetary nebula
M76, which I knew would be pretty faint and more of a challenge.
([M52,31,76] = [10,8,9] x 32sec, ISO 400, 25mm eyepiece, 6" scope; 2007/09/13)
I was lucky to be in Estes Park, CO for better view of this eclipse. In typical
Colorado fashion, the skies were cloudy (post-thunderstorms) at sunset but slowly
cleared overnight. The beginning of the eclipse was glimpsed through small
breaks in the clouds. At totality the skies were almost cloud free, though
this was partly an illusion caused by the lack of moonlight to illuminate those
clouds that did remain.
(Kodak ZX730 camera, 4x zoom, ISO 100, 1-sec exposures (montage) 1/250 sec-exposures (animation); 2007/08/28)
This photo is deeper than last year's attempt at M8 (below). In this
photo, without a nebular filter this time, the Lagoon nebula appears fainter
but much less noisy.
(28 16-sec ISO 400 exposures, 2007/07/06)
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Venus and Saturn were only 42' apart on June 30, 2007. This is close enought to view both
within the same field of view of a 6" f/6 telescope with a 25mm eyepiece. The brightness contrast
between the two planets is extreme. This makes it very difficult to have both planets reasonably
exposed in the same image. So I tried several variations.
The above image is a stack of (2x1/125 + 2x1/60 + 1/30 + 1/15) second ISO 400 images.
The scale has been reduced by 33%. The mouseover blowups are a 1/125 second ISO 200
exposure and 1/15 sec at ISO 400. The relatively low elevation and brigth twilight didn't help.
To the eye, the both planets were still floating in a bright blue sky. The eye copes with the
wide dynamic range much much better than the camera does.
The globular cluster Messier 13 in Hercules is shown on the left, and Messier 4
in Scorpius is on the right. Much of the difference in the appearance of
the clusters is due to the difference in elevation of the two clusters.
M13 was nearly overhead, while M4 was at only 23 degrees elevation. That
means there was 2.5 time for air, haze, and dust in the way. I had imaged
both the clusters previously, but spent more time and effort at doing better
this time around. ([M13,M4]: [16,28] 16-sec ISO 400 exposures, 2007/06/[23,20])
I also tried Messier 10. More experimentally, I used longer 32-sec exposures.
However only 2 frames were unaffected by poor tracking. Thus this image is
at 1/2 the scale as the others above (M10: 2 32-sec ISO 400 exposures, 2007/06/17).
All the stars in the sky are in motion. Despite speeds of tens to hundereds
of km/s, their apparent motions are tiny beacuse the distances involved are
so large. Presently, Barnard's Star exhibits the highest proper motion of any star
in the sky. This set of images shows the 10.3" motion of Barnard's Star over a 2 year
interval. (2005/06/27 and 2006/06/17 12x4sec ISO 400; 2007/06/22 10x8sec ISO 400)
I'm pretty sure that this is a flare from the Iridium 36 satellite. It's in the
right spot, but it was more than 30 seconds later than I expected. Luckily
this is a 64-sec exposure (ISO 100) and the flare happened jut before the end (rather
than just after the start. In the linked wider field picture you may recognize
parts of Draco and Hercules. Later that evening I saw another (completely unexpected)
Iridium flare, though I was unable to verify which satellite it was. That's odd. (2007/06/20)
The scattering of light by small particles produces red sunsets (also moonsets and
Venus-sets, see below). Conversely, the light that does get scattered is what
produces the blue sky. A lesser known fact is that this scattered light is
polarized, as demonstrated in this photo. The photo shows two lenses from
a pair of polaroid sunglasses. The lens that looks brighter is aligned
with the direction of the polarization. The other lens is perpendicular
to the polarization direction and thus blocks more of the light of the sky.
The tiny white speck within the darker lens is the Moon, unpolarized and
thus seen with higher contrast than without the polarizer. You need clear
blue skies to see polarization at its best. If skies are hazy the effect is lessened.
If it's cloudy (or nighttime) try rotating your polarized sunglasses while
looking as an LCD screen (TV or computer).
(2007/06/20)
One month later the moon passes Venus again. What caught my attention here was
the deep red color of both the Moon and Venus, caused by cloud-free but very hazy skies.
(2007/06/18)
| 4 Vesta: 1 hour motion | 21 Lutetia: 1 hour motion | 85 Io: 1 hour motion |
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| 113 Amalthea: 1 hour motion | ||
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More asteroids. If I photographed 4 asteroids per night, every night,
it would take more than 100 years to photograph all the ones that are presently numbered.
| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures | Comment |
| 4 | Vesta | 1.17 | 5.2 | 936 | 2007/06/17 03:51 | 2007/06/17 04:55 | [2,2]x12sec | |
| 21 | Lutetia | 1.31 | 9.7 | 190 | 2007/06/17 03:46 | 2007/06/17 04:48 | [5,7]x12sec | |
| 85 | Io | 1.38 | 10.2 | 308 | 2007/06/17 04:19 | 2007/06/17 05:12 | [7,7]x12sec | |
| 113 | Amalthea | 1.25 | 11.0 | 92 | 2007/06/17 04:09 | 2007/06/17 05:04 | [8,9]x12sec |
As the Great Bear chases Venus over the horizon, the ISS streaks past, slicing off
the bear's tail. (25 16-sec exposures; 2007/06/04)
| 3 Juno: 0.75 hour motion | 28 Bellona: 0.75 hour motion | 56 Melete: 0.8 hour motion |
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| 128 Nemesis: 0.7 hour motion | 135 Hertha: 0.7 hour hotion | |
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More asteroids, despite a full moon and pushing to fainter magnitudes in
most cases.
| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures | Comment |
| 3 | Juno | 2.54 | 9.9 | 466 | 2007/05/30 02:48 | 2007/05/30 03:34 | [6,4]x8sec | |
| 28 | Bellona | 1.97 | 10.7 | 240 | 2007/05/30 02:56 | 2007/05/30 03:39 | [8,6]x8sec | |
| 56 | Melete | 1.65 | 11.3 | 226 | 2007/05/30 02:35 | 2007/05/30 03:25 | [6,8]x8sec | |
| 128 | Nemesis | 2.16 | 11.6 | 376 | 2007/05/30 03:13 | 2007/05/30 03:53 | [10,9]x8sec | |
| 135 | Hertha | 1.52 | 11.1 | 158 | 2007/05/30 03:05 | 2007/05/30 03:45 | [8,5]x8sec |
(1) The Moon and Venus, [1/8 sec exposure 4x zoom (50% scale)].
(2) The Moon, Venus, and δ,
ζ and ε Gem [8 sec exposure 4x zoom]
(Kodak Z730; 2007/05/19)
| 18 Melpomene: single image | 20 Massalia: 1 hour motion | 31 Euphrosyne: 1 hour motion |
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| 37 Fides: 1 hour motion | 39 Laetitia: single image | 43 Ariadne: 1 hour motion |
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| 44 Nysa: 1 hour motion | 51 Nemausa: 1 hour motion | 78 Diana: 1 hour motion |
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| 89 Julia: 1 hour motion | 97 Klotho: 1 hour motion | 116 Sirona: 1 hour motion |
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| 2006 VV2: 22 minute motion | ||
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On the night of April 28 (UT), I managed to image several of these asteroids with
two series of pictures about one hour apart. I combined the good images from
each of the two epochs and made these animated GIFs to show the apparent motion
of the asteroids in the 1 hr interval. In each case the asteroid is moving
northwest (to the upper right). Each image shows a 19'x19' field of view at
a scale of 4.5"/pixel. Meade ETX-105 + 25 mm eyepiece + 1x camera zoom.
Later, I've added other asteroids at 1-hour and 1-day intervals, and a few for
which only one image (or composite image) was obtained or worked out well.
| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures | Comment |
| 18 | Melpomene | 1.72 | 9.6 | 280 | ... | 2007/03/12 02:42 | [12]x8sec | |
| 20 | Massalia | 1.14 | 8.4 | 145 | 2007/02/11 03:57 | 2007/02/11 04:59 | [5,6]x8sec | Combined background field. |
| 31 | Euphrosyne | 2.02 | 10.4 | 510 | 2007/03/21 02:45 | 2007/03/21 03:49 | [4,3]x16sec | |
| 37 | Fides | 1.70 | 10.4 | 216 | 2007/03/12 01:32 | 2007/03/12 02:27 | [7]x8sec,[1]x24sec | Near N edge. |
| 39 | Laetitia | 2.68 | 10.4 | 298 | 2007/03/12 00:59 | ... | [1]x24sec | |
| 43 | Ariadne | 1.60 | 10.9 | 130 | 2007/03/21 02:56 | 2007/03/21 04:01 | [2,3]x16sec | |
| 44 | Nysa | 1.58 | 9.7 | 140 | 2007/03/12 01:21 | 2007/03/12 02:23 | [7,6]x8sec | μ Gem at W edge. |
| 51 | Nemausa | 1.39 | 9.8 | 294 | 2007/03/21 03:06 | 2007/03/21 04:08 | [3,4]x16sec | |
| 78 | Diana | 1.41 | 10.5 | 240 | 2007/03/21 02:37 | 2007/03/21 03:34 | [4,4]x16sec | |
| 89 | Julia | 2.13 | 10.6 | 302 | 2007/03/21 03:19 | 2007/03/21 04:17 | [2,4]x16sec | |
| 97 | Klotho | 1.72 | 10.5 | 164 | 2007/03/12 01:11 | 2007/03/12 02:05 | [7]x8sec,[1]x34sec | Very faint, near center of image. NGC 2169 in NW corner. |
| 116 | Sirona | 1.56 | 10.7 | 142 | 2007/03/21 03:25 | 2007/03/21 04:27 | [5,4]x16sec | Combined background field. |
| 2006 VV2 | 0.0253 | ~10 | ~1.5 | 2007/03/30 02:39 | 2007/03/30 03:01 | 36x12sec | Click for other images. |
Nova Scorpii 2007 is indicated in this composite of 3 24-sec ISO 400 images.
I'm pleased to have gotten this picture despite various and sundry difficulties.
The most serious of which is the light pollution, which prevented me from seeing
the nova with my naked eye even though it was an easy target in binoculars.
The "mouseover" comparison image was taken under much better conditions in
Colorado, 6 months before the nova exploded. (It's an alternate version of the
Sco-Sgr image further down on this page.)
The nova's light curve shown below is from the AAVSO.
I've added annotations for calandar dates, and a red arrow indicating the date
at which my picture was taken.
(left) Star trails while looking south on a winter night. Notice that stars
in the southern celestial hemisphere follow circular paths around the south
celestial pole (which lies 50 degrees below the bottom of this photo).
Whereas, stars in the northern
celestial hemisphere circle around the north celestial pole (near Polaris, and
about 65 degrees above the top of this photo).
The sky is bright by the light of a first quarter moon. The trees and houses
are mostly lit by the headlights of passing cars.
This image is a composite of 62x12sec ISO 400
exposures (combined using a "lighten" function)
with a 0.6x wide-angle lens attachment.
The total time span is about 25 minutes.
(right) A guided 7x24sec exposure of the same stars (in portrait orientation and
cropped). Gemini, Canis Minor, Orion, Monoceros, Lepus, Canis Major, Columba.
Another nice cluster. I'm not sure I've ever seen this one before.
This is an average of 10 8sec ISO 400 exposures, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece.
(2007/02/11)
Saturn. This is an average of 4 0.5-sec ISO 200 exposures with a Kodak Z730 camera
at 4x optical zoom (F=22mm) pointed into a 12.5 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105 (F=1470mm)
telescope. A light unsharp masking was applied before aligning and averaging the images.
The contrast was enhanced. Lastly, the image was reduced in scale by a factor of 2.
(2007/02/11)
| 20 Massalia: 1 hour motion |
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One more asteroid. This animation shows the motion of Massalia over a one hour
interval. The background field is a combination of both images because the
first image was of poor quality.
| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures |
| 20 | Massalia | 1.14 | 8.4 | 145 | 2007/02/11 03:57 | 2007/02/11 04:59 | [5,6]x8sec |
In the twilight sky on Jan 20 a thin lunar crescent (48 hrs old) was nicely
paired with the planet Venus. The sky was too bright to see the stars clearly,
but they show up in this 4 sec ISO 100 exposure. About 15 minutes later I
used binoculars to watch the Moon occult δ Cap. For a few minutes
before the star winked out, it looked as if it were the light of a
small lunar colony at the Moon's limb. (2007 Jan 20 18:06 EST)
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The picture below was taken a few minutes later from a slightly different location (about 50 feet to the south to avoid the trees seen above). This picture is just a single exposure at 4x zoom, 1/3sec, ISO 100. This picture is cropped from the full scale original, whereas the picture above was reduced in size by 50% before cropping.
(Thanks to some members of the GSFC
astronomy club for helping initially locate the comet on 2007/01/08. These are not
backyard pictures -- I don't have such a good horizon at home. 2007/01/10 17:30 EST)
On Christmas Eve this flash in the sky was not Santa Claus heading south, but a
glint of sunlight off the Iridium 80 satellite. This Iridium flare was not as
bright as I expected, but which led me to discover that I have for a long
time been looking up flares using slightly erroneous coordinates. This is
especially important from watching Iridium flares, which are very localized
events. The nice aspect of the full wide-field picture is the pairing of both natural and artificial
satellites in the same frame. The overexposed Moon was a thick 4.5 day old
crescent at the time. (24 sec, ISO 100, 1x zoom exposure. 2006/12/24)
A nice passage of the space shuttle Discovery docked with the ISS. This is a series of 8-sec
exposures (with 8-sec gaps) at ISO 100 with a wide angle lens (f.l. = 19.8 mm). Seven
images were taken as the spacecraft approached from the SW. Then after repointing the
camera four more were taken as they receded to the NE. Photoshop was used to stack (lighten mode)
the images taken at the same pointing. Stitcher was used to combine and reproject the pair
of stacked images. This animated GIF version presents
the images a bit more like the way it looked to me, but with the spacecraft imaged as
a long streak instead of a bright point, and at 16x the actual speed. (2006 Dec 18 17:40 EST)
About 24 hr + 20 min later, Discovery and the ISS passed by again. Discovery had undocked
about 1 hr earlier but was still too close to resolve with a wide angle lens, or
the naked eye. This image is a combination of 8 12-sec ISO 100 exposures.
The spacecraft create the uppermost dashed track which pass directly through the
constellation Lyra. At least six aircraft are more readily apparent along at
least two air routes. (2006 Dec 19 18:01 EST)
There was good weather for lunar and solar haloes (and other optical effects) last week.
However the only display I photographed was this lunar halo. The image here is
an average of 3 4-sec (ISO 100) exposures with a wide angle accessory lens.
This averaging decreases the graininess of the image and smooths out a slight
unevenness of the clouds in any single picture. I hadn't notice any unevenness
by eye. The full scale version is bit more free from JPEG artifacts. The slight
reddening at the bottom of the image is light pollution from reflected
sodium vapor lights. (2006/12/02)
A nice cluster for small telescopes in Perseus. This is an average of 15 8sec
ISO 400 exposures, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. The tracking and alignment
were not good this night, so I kept individual exposures short.
(2006/11/25)
Some practice before the transit of Mercury (which was rained out here). The first
is the full-disk image of the sun shown at a reduced scale. The second show
the region of the sunspots in greater detail.
(2006/11/04)
Not a terribly bright comet, Comet SWAN is shown here in the southern part
of the keystone of Hercules. (North is to the upper right.) The comet is the
slightly fuzzy green dot on the left side of the image. The globular cluster
M13 is the fuzzy blob at the far right.
(7X12sec exposures, ISO 400, 4x zoom; 2006/10/29)
Star trails on a dark night. The view is looking
east again. At the upper left is Cassipeia, at left is part of Perseus.
Pegasus exits from the top center of the image, and the enters
from the bottom center.
This image is a composite of 101x16sec ISO 400
exposures with a 0.6x wideangle lens attachment.
The total time span is about 58 minutes.
This image shows some of Janssen Rille (the thin crack in the floor of
the large crater at left) and the Rheita Valley (the much wider, interrupted trench
at the right center of this image). The linked uncropped image shows numerous
other features on the east side of the Moon.
(25mm eyepiece + Meade ETX-105; 2006/10/10)
This image shows Electra, one of the brighter stars in the Pleiades star cluster,
about 20 seconds before it was occulted by the Moon. It was sort of tricky to
be able to get a good image of the star without badly overexposing the moon.
The animated gif image
shows the full event with a sequence of images
at roughly 12 second intervals. (1/8sec ISO 100 4x zoom exoposures,
25mm eyepiece + Meade ETX-105; 2006/10/10)
Star trails on a bright moonlit night. The Moon was rising behind the trees just below
the field of view shown here. The view is looking
east. At the upper left is part of Cassipeia, at left is part of Perseus.
Andromeda ia at the center of the image, and the core of M31 is visible as a
slightly fuzzier star trail (in the larger scale version).
This image is a composite of 24x8sec ISO 400
exposures at 1x zoom. The total time span is about 6.5 minutes.
I was testing how bad the moonlight
might be during the upcoming occultation of the Pleiades. (2006/10/08)
Non-telescopic views of Scorpius-Sagittarius and Summer Triangle regions as seen from Rabbit Ears Pass (Lake Dumont). In truly dark skies, the constellations can be harder to see because of the great abundance of stars and the brightness of the Milky Way. (2006/08/16)
Many Messier objects can be seen in the linked images for the Scorpius-Sagittarius pictures. The Milky Way looking toward the center of the Galaxy is always impressive, even though we can see only a fraction of the way to the actual center. In the wide angle picture you can very faintly see the reflection of the sky on the lake, in addition to the shadows of nearby pine trees and distant mountains.
| Scorpius, Sagittarius (southern horizon) | Scorpius, Sagittarius (wide angle lens) |
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| Summer Triangle (overhead) | Summer Triangle (wide angle lens) |
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Each image here is a combination of 5 to 9 hand-guided 48 sec exposures at f2.8, ISO 400, and 1x zoom with my Kodak Z730. The wide-angle shots used a 0.6x wide-angle accessory lens. The images shown on this page are reduced in scale by a factor of 6. The linked images are reduced in scale by a factor of 2.
Two years ago I tried similar pictures at the same location using a film camera. The film results turned out a little sharper (the digital camera has smaller and maybe less percise optics), deeper (the digitam camera only reaches f2.8 vs. f2 for the film camera), and with greater color contrast (the blue response to IR emission may reduce the saturation of deeply red stars). However, the digital camera results have a more uniformly flat background that makes the final image look nicer despite the other technical short-comings.
The Moon is more than one billion times closer to us than most stars seen in the night sky. Therefore when viewed from two different locations it exhibits a parallactic shift with respect to the distant background stars. (The stars seen here are Antares = α Sco, and τ and σ Sco.) The parallactic shift is proportional to the separation of the viewing locations, i.e. the baseline. The eyeball-to-eyball baseline is wide enough to see parallax for objects near enough to grab (or hit with a thrown rock), but not enough for seeing the Moon's parallax. Using a wider baseline of about 1543km, this animation shows the Moon's parallax in a pair of simultaneous images. With the known baseline length, the parallax measured from the pictures can be used to calculate the distance to the Moon: 391473km. (This result turns out to be accurate to better than 3%.) Capturing these images was a joint effort with my friend Mark. The images are both composites 1/250sec and 2sec exposures at ISO 200 and 3x and 4x zoom, which were selected from sequences of image with exposures from 8sec to 1/1000sec. You can see his reductions of the same data at his website.
Below is a red-blue anaglyph version of the images.
Red(left eye)-blue(right eye) glasses will show a 3D effect, but it is
not very dramatic because of the lack of nearby background stars.
2006/08/05 03:00 UT.
I think this picture shows that on an exceptionally clear July night, it is
possible to obtain an image of Pluto with only a 105mm aperture telescope.
This image is a combination of 25 12-sec images that had been stacked in
groups of 5. I had 40 additional images, which would have helped nicely
except they suffered from poor tracking. A separate set of 5 images was used to
make a background image that was subtracted from each frame.
The brightness and contrast were strongly stretched, and the image was
cropped but not changed in scale. The two brightest stars are 9th
magnitude. The "typical" stars are about 12th magnitude. The faintest
seem to be about 14th magnitude. Pluto (mag = 13.9) is indicated by the
circle when your cursor is over the image. It's barely detected here, but the
location is exactly where Pluto was supposed to be, and checking the digital
sky survey indicates that there are no comparably bright stars at this
location. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate to allow me to
duplicate this on another night to show the motion of Pluto. I did try
on a more typically hazy night, but even with 48 12-sec images could not
produce an image this deep. (25x12sec ISO400 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece Meade
ETX-105. 2006/07/18 03:30 UT)
The bright, but southernly, globular cluster Messier 22. (2006/07/18)
A non-telescopic view of Sagittarius as seen from Bowie, MD on an exceptionally clear night. The "teapot" was easy to see despite light pollution. The stars of Corona Australis were even visible above and between the rooftops of neighbors' houses. Messier object 7, 8, and 22 are not too difficult to find here. However, the Milky Way was still invisible. (2006/07/18)
A comparison of visible (left) and infrared (right) images of the Moon. I had hoped that the IR image might show some certain features differently than the visible image. However, there is little difference between the red channel of the visible image and the IR image. The quality of the IR image suffers a bit for several reasons: low sensitivity necessitated as much longer exposure time (1 sec vs 1/90 sec), and made focussing more difficult; the IR + red stacked filters produce internal reflections and scattered light.
The conjunction of Saturn and Mars in the evening sky on 2006 June 17.
It's rare to get two planets visible in the same telescopic field of view.
On the telescopic view at left, Mars is only 0.6 degrees N of Saturn. 1x0.5 sec, ISO 100, 1xzoom,
25mm eyepiece, Meade ETX-105 (2006/06/17).
The animated sequence combines a background averaged from about 50 8 sec
exposures on Jun 12 with single frames from Jun 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, and 21.
(Click for a larger version of the combined frames.)
Mars moving through
the Beehive in the darkening skies at dusk on 2006 Jun 15. Because of the motion,
I could only stack ~8 consecutive 2sec ISO 400 exposures, but a sequence of such
averaged images over a 15 minute period produces the animation seen here.
In another example of how planets don't hold still to get their pictures taken,
here's Jupiter and its moons: Io, Ganymede, and Europa (left to right). In just
six minute you can see the rotation of Jupiter and the orbital motion of all three moons.
The 3.4 magnitude star γ Vir provided a good target for capturing this
telescopic view of a -5 magnitude flare from the Iridium 10 satellite.
It took the satellite about 2 seconds to pass through the field of
view during this 8 second exposure. (2006/06/18 23:25:02 EDT)
From left to right: Saturn (mag. = 0.4), Mars (mag. = 1.8), Mercury (mag. = 0.3),
Pollux (mag. = 1.2) and Castor (mag. = 1.6).
| Visible IR | |
| Vega Arcturus |  |
All the stars in the sky are in motion. Despite speeds of tens to hundereds
of km/s, their apparent motions are tiny beacuse the distances involved are
so large. Presently, Barnard's Star exhibits the highest proper motion of any star
in the sky. This set of images shows the 10.3" motion of Barnard's Star over a 1 year
interval. (2005/06/27, 2006/06/17, 12x4sec exposures ISO 400)
Messier 23 (open cluster) |
A large open cluster in Sagittarius. (ISO 400 10x12sec) |
Messier 4 (globular cluster) |
This globular cluster near Antares appears dimmed and reddened because of the low elevation, as seen from 39N lat. (ISO 400 13x12sec) |
Messier 8 (open cluster + nebula) |
The large Lagoon Nebula is not apparent in this image, but the small intense Hourglass nebula is visible. Hubble images of this region show that the Hourglass is really a low extinction window into the heart of the H II region. (ISO 400 3x32sec with nebular filter) |
All: 25mm eyepiece, Meade ETX-105. (2006/06).
A flare from the Iridium 4 satellite as seen near Regulus through/between moonlit clouds. The flare was supposed to be -4 magnitude. This exposure was for 48 sec (unguided) at ISO 100 and 1x zoom. In the linked uncropped version, the full sickle of Leo and more clouds are visible. (2006/06/05 22:49:40 EDT)
A big Moon image, mosaiced from 13 1/15sec ISO 200 4x zoom images with a 25mm eyepiece and the Meade ETX-105. Light unsharp masking (50%, 1 pix radius). 2006/06/06 02:30 UT.
16 1/15sec images at ISO 200. Unsharp masking before and after averaging.
In this case, I've made no special adjustment to the relative brightness of
the moons. Callisto is far out of the field of view to the left. (2006/06/05 22:40 EDT)
Star trails taken using a wide angle lens. This is a composite of
51x16sec exposures. With such short exposures, the background sky
doesn't get too bright, and the dead time between exposures doesn't grow
long enough to make gaps in the trails when the final image is reduced in
scale by 33% as in the linked image.
(2006/05/21 10:37-11:09)
This is the youngest Moon that I've ever seen --- only 19hr 23min old at the time of this picture. The thin layers of clouds could obscure the even thinner crescent Moon, but luckily the clouds had some wide gaps. The Moon was pretty easy to see in binoculars, but I didn't see it unaided (though I didn't try very hard while working on getting a picture). The picture didn't turn out as well as I hoped. The big mistake was trying to do this with a telephoto lens rather than just leaving it to the camera's built-in zoom. The accessory lens focus is different and I never get it right consistently. It took a heavy unsharp masking (150%, 10pix) to make the Moon and Mercury look even this bad. Still, it's nice that I was able to get both in the same shot. (2006/05/27).
Two large bright elliptical galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are
a bit better than I had expected. A pleasant surprise was to find
two fainter galaxies in the same fields. 30 and 36 16sec ISO 400 exposures
respectively. 25mm eyepiece, Meade ETX-105.
(2006/05/23).
Mouse-over the text:
| 2006/05/23 04:00 UT | 2006/05/24 04:00 UT | 1-day motion |
Only the core and central part of the disk of the Sombero Galaxy show up here. This is 68 16-sec ISO 400 exposures, background subtraction, cropped, contrast stretched. Meade ETX-105, 25mm eyepiece 1x zoom. (21 frames on 2006/04/26 + 47 frames on 2006/05/20).
| 105 Artemis: 1 hour motion |
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| 105 | Artemis | 1.16 | 10.5 | 119 | 2006/05/02 03:22 | 2006/05/02 04:15 | [3,9]x8sec |
A wide angle accessory lens for my camera enables capturing a full 22 degree (radius) halo
with room to spare. This halo is brighter and more even than I would have expected from
the patchy appearance of the cirrus clouds. The middle picture zooms in for a better view of the
colors. The right picture includes the horizon. Not far above the rooftops it looked
another rainbowed arc was present. This is part of the rarer 46 degree halo. It
can be seen more clearly in this version with the
saturation enhanced.
(The other pictures are unmodified.)
(2006/04/30)
Yet another very thin crescent moon. Subtler than a sunset and easier on the eyes. Click on the image for the large-scale image. (1 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom)
A decade ago, this comet split into several fragments. The brightest of these is
designated Fragment C and is shown here. This is a stack of 37x16sec exposures
2006/04/19 03:00--04:00 UT, combined with 28x16 exposures
2006/04/20 03:00--04:00 UT. Both sets were at ISO 400,
with 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece and Meade ETX-105. The star trails are all from
the first night's images, and illustrate the motion of the comet over a
1 hour interval.
Several days later comet SW3 had moved across to the east side of Corona Borealis.
This view is a combination of 20 64-sec exposures taken at ISO 400 and 2.2x zoom
piggybacked on my telescope. Mouseover to identify the comet (Fragment C).
Click for the full resolution, wider field image. The faintest visible stars
are about 9.5 mag. Fragment B should be within this field of view, but is too
faint to be seen. Perhaps because it has started to crumble and disperse into
smaller fragments at this time. (2006/04/25 3:00-4:00 UT)
The left image of fragment C is a stack of 25x16sec exposures
2006/04/29 03:45--04:36 UT. The right image of fragment B is 14x16 exposures
2006/04/29 04:40--05:15 UT. Both sets were at ISO 400,
with 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece and Meade ETX-105. The star trails are from
10.8 and 10.3 mag stars.
The left image of fragment C is a stack of 18x12sec exposures
2006/05/04 03:28--03:45 UT. The right image of fragment B is 19x12 exposures
2006/05/04 03:49--04:09 UT. Both sets were at ISO 800,
with 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece and Meade ETX-105.
Fragment B (right) has brightened! It was photographed at relatively low elevation in bright moonlight at 2006/05/10 03:58--04:11 UT. Fragment C (left) rose above the trees later and was photographed at 2006/05/10 05:00--05:15 UT. Both images are stacks of 11x16sec exposures at ISO 400, with 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece and Meade ETX-105. Below is an animation from the individual exposures of fragment B.
A fairly large bright galaxy, but at a far southern declination that is just barely acessible when my Meade ETX-105 is in polar alignment. Only the nucleus is visible here (9x24sec, ISO 400, 25mm eyepiece). (2006/04/30).
With a bigger telescope and deeper integration, this would be a real nice picture. Here, all that can be seen is the core of M51 (fuzzy white blob at center), and the core of the elliptical companion galaxy NGC 5195 (fuzzy orange blob to the North). This is a stack of 13 32-sec ISO 400 images. (2005/04/10)
Version 2: I've added another 14x24sec exposures. It now takes a little less imagination to pick out the spiral arms. (2006/04/29)
NGC 2392: The Eskimo Nebula. The bright star to the north is 99" away and 8.2 mag. The
faintest visible star is 100 times fainter at 13.2 mag. 6x16-sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom
Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. (2006/04/28)
The Coma picture is a combination of 6 24sec frames at 4x zoom, piggybacked on the Meade ETX-105. This picture is sharper and deeper than my earlier picture below. Many galaxies lie in this portion of the sky, but the only one detectable is NGC 4494 (9.9 mag). Only a star-like core of this 4.8' diameter elliptical galaxy is visible, quite likely because that core contains an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Not a bad photo considering a nearly full moon was less that 30 degrees away. 2006/04/09.
A wide view of Mizar (A+B mag. = 2.27+4.95) and Alcor (mag. = 4.0) and several
fainter stars nearby. Each of the stars Mizar A and B is actually a
binary, making four stars in all. Alcor might possibly be a very distant companion,
but even if not, it is still another member of the Ursa major moving group - a widely
dispersed star cluster sharing a common proper motion across the sky.
This is a stack of 7x6-sec exposures + 1 12-sec exposure. 2006/04/09.
This image shows the close binary Castor A and B, with their faint red companion
Castor C (and another more distant star). Each of the stars Castor A, B and C is
actually a binary system. Castor C (also known as YY Gem) happens to be an
eclipsing binary -- one of the few such systems composed of M type stars.
This is a single 0.1sec 4x zoom exposure, scaled and superimposed on a single
4sec 1x zoom exposure, both at ISO 400.
The original version of this image seems rather overexposed. Accidentally, I found that
inverting the image, as shown here, brings out very different detail. Most surprising to
me was the large number of evenly scattered small bright craters. These are distinctively
dark specks in the full-scale version of negative image.
This is a single 1/60sec ISO 80 exposure at 1.8x zoom
with a 40mm eyepiece and the Meade ETX-105 telescope.
A very light unsharp masking (2 pixels, 50%) was applied.
A higher magnification view of the Mare Humorum can be seen here.
(2006/04/09)
Five of Saturn's moons can be seen in this image. My real goal was to get
an image of the asteroid 53 Kalypso as it happened to be moving in front of the
Saturnian system. It turns out that Kalypso was more than a magnitude fainter
than I expected, and it may be wishful thinking to see it in this image.
Still, because I used a wide field of view, this image is the first I have
showing Iapetus. The mouseover image identifies Kalypso in red,
the moons in yellow, and stars in white. (Saturn has a moon named Calypso, but
being smaller and more distant then Kalypso, it is much much fainter.)
The setup used my Meade ETX-105
with a 40 mm eyepiece. The camera was set to ISO 400, 4x zoom, and 8-second exposures.
The image shown here is a stack of 13 frames.
After aligning and averaging the frames, I strongly stretched the contrast.
The RGB color channels were averaged to reduce noise.
A combination of shorter exposures, with less contrast enhancement, is
substituted in the overexposed region to show Rhea, Tethys (barely), and Dione.
(2005/04/10)
Saturn. This is an average of 7(?) 0.5-sec ISO 200 exposures with a Kodak Z730 camera
at 4x optical zoom (F=22mm) pointed into a 12.5 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105 (F=1470mm)
telescope. A light unsharp masking was applied before aligning and averaging the images.
The contrast was enhanced. Lastly, the image was reduced in scale by a factor of 2.
Over an interval of one year, the apparent change in the inclination of the
rings (slowly changing seasons on Saturn) becomes apparent, as seen
by comparison with the older images below.
Saturn is a little large in this picture because a 5 Mpix camera was
used here, while earlier pictures used a 4 Mpix camera. (2006/04/09)
The linked image is a
composite of this one with a deeper image in which
the moons Rhea, Dione, Tethys, and Titan are visible.
M97: The Owl Nebula. This is a large but pretty faint planetary nebula. It took a lot
of effort to get only a poor image. The star just to the N of the Owl is 11.75 mag, and 165" from
the center of the nebula. The image is a heavily processed stack of
38 16-sec ISO 800 exposures at 1x zoom and 1.8 Mpix resolution,
Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. A nebular filter was used for these exposures. (2006/03/29)
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An animation of the best sequences of the evening is found here.
A cross-eyed stereo image appears here.
All images and the animated GIF are 3 sec ISO 200 exposures at 1x zoom with a 25mm eyepiece and the Meade ETX-105 telescope, except for the first still image, which is 6 sec at ISO 100. (2006/04/01)
Messier 41 (open cluster),
145 CMa (AB sep. = 26"; 4.81 + 6.00 mag.; 3x1sec images),
k Pup (AB sep. = 10"; 3.78 + 4.62 mag.; 3x1sec images)
145 CMa is sometimes called "The Winter Albireo" because its two components
have a similar separation, brightness, and color contrast to the stars of
Albireo (β Cyg). The original picture of both 145 CMa and k Pup showed
strong refraction effects from these stars' low elevations. This was removed
from the final images by separating and shifting the RGB color channels.
(2006/03/18)
Saturn. This is an average of 10 1-sec ISO 100 exposures with a Kodak Z730 camera
at 4x optical zoom (F=22mm) pointed into a 12.5 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105 (F=1470mm)
telescope. After aligning and averaging the images, the contrast was enhanced.
An unsharp masking (50%, radius = 7pix)
was then applied. Lastly, the image was reduced in scale by a factor of 2.
Over an interval of one year, the apparent change in the inclination of the
rings (slowly changing seasons on Saturn) becomes apparent, as seen
by comparison with the older images below.
Saturn is a little large in this picture because a 5 Mpix camera was
used here, while earlier pictures used a 4 Mpix camera. (2006/03/07)
Saturn's motion across the sky is slow, but it's still easy to see from day to day when there
are nearby stars for reference. This blinking GIF image shows Saturn moving past the Praesepe
(or "Beehive") Cluster in the center of the constellation Cancer on 2006 Jan 28 - 29
(~11:30 PM EST). Saturn's mean motion is 2'/day from west to east, but here Saturn
is in its retrograde loop and appears to move 5' from east to west.
The southwestern portion of the moon showing, Tycho (with rays) , Bailly (large crater on the limb),
and other features. This is an excerpt from a mosaic of several 1/90sec ISO 80 exposures at 4x zoom
with a 12.5mm eyepiece and the 6" telescope. A light unsharp masking was applied. (2006/01/12)
The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant (SNR) created by the explosion of a star in 1054 AD. Most of the emission from the nebula is synchrotron radiation from high energy particles spraying off the pulsar at the center of the nebula. I collected 29 32-sec ISO 400 images with a 25mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105. 9 of the images were pretty good and mosaicked for the full field. Another 19 images were a bit too trailed to produce nice star images. So these were masked and only overlaid in region of the SNR, where they help the signal-to-noise ratio and the trailing is not so noticeable. With better S/N, the central region was stretched slightly to improve visibility of the SNR and even out the apparent noise level across the image. This is the deepest image that I've ever taken with this setup. Some of the stars visible near the SNR are no brighter than 14.5 mag. (2005/12/23)
Venus is bright enough that it too can produce interesting
optical effects as its light scatters through thin clouds.
Here a small corona is visible around an overexposed and unresolved
Venus. It would be very interesting to see a 22-degree halo from
Venus, but I expect this would require a long exposure under very dark
skies and just the right clouds. This picture is a 12 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom,
f4.8 exposure. (2005/12/23)
Both Rigel (but not its companion) and σ Orionis appear below, but these
new images are better. R Leporis is the deep red star at the left side of the image.
(2005/12/20-23)
A nice halo from clouds that were not quite a uniform layer. This is a 4 sec, ISO 400,
1x zoom, f2.8 exposure. The larger (50% scale) version shows some of the brighter stars
of Gemini, Orion, Taurus, and Auriga within and around the halo. (2005/12/16 11:21PM EST)
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The first three images are averages of 6x0.125 sec and 6x1/90 sec ISO 80 exposures and 15x1/250 sec ISO 400 exposures at 4x zoom with a 25mm eyepiece and Meade ETX-105. Processing included realignment of RGB color planes, moderate unsharp masking (50%, 7pix, 0), and a slight stretch in contrast.
The 2006/01/07 pictures are more varied bunch. The "white" and "prismatic" images are
averages of 8x1/30sec ISO 400 exposures. The "white" has been further altered by
aligning the color channels separately (to compensate for refraction),
replacing the red channel with the green channel (because the red channel was slightly
overexposed), and rebalancing the color for a white image.
The "variegated" image is a single 1/60 sec frame with the color channels realigned.
This shorter exposure is a little sharper, but noisier, than the 1/30 sec images.
At the next picture after this, Venus had set
into the trees (full frame 1/4 scale).
The "daylight" picture was shot earlier at 2:26 PM using my 6" newtonian reflector and a
25mm eyepiece with a red filter (to try to increase contrast against the blue sky).
The hue of the final image was shifted from the odd red color to a more natural blue.
The final image is an average of 10 frames at 1/500 sec, ISO 80, and 1x zoom.
(2005/11/12)
Langrenus is the large crater to the south. Mare Crisium is the circular sea, ringed
by mountains. Messier A and B (and their "comet tail" ray system) are visible too.
This is a 1/45sec ISO 100 4x zoom image taken with a 12.5mm eyepiece and a 6" newtonian telescope.
A moderate amount of sharpening (50%, 7 pix, 0 threshold) has been applied after the picture
was reduced in scale by a factor of 50%.
(2005/11/18 00:15 EST)
I don't really intend to keep photographing Aristarchus, but that's what happens
when I choose the same time of night to take pictures and have a limited range
of hour angle visible. The illumination here is almost exactly the same as in
my picture from March, below. This image is a mosaic
of 3 1/8sec ISO 200 4x zoom images taken with a 12.5mm eyepiece and a Meade ETX-105.
A moderate amount of sharpening has been applied.
(2005/11/12)
(2005/11/12)
Not the clear night I was expecting. So instead of photographing Mars or the Moon,
I took some pictures of the clouds. I seemed very serene. This is a 24 sec, ISO 200, f4.8
exposure. The length of the exposure does smear the clouds a bit. The larger scale
version is 1/3 of the original size, and has had the color altered to remove a
reddish cast from the clouds and sky. (2005/11/11 10:30PM EST)
Venus and the Moon are just above the stars of the
spout of the "teapot" of Sagittarius. Some other fainter stars are also visible
in this 8 sec ISO 100 4x zoom unguided exposure. (Nov. 5, 2005)
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Mars ... with a telescope.
(A): 6x1/8 sec exposures, ISO 100, 4x zoom, 12.5 mm eyepiece.
Images where aligned, averaged, realigned by RGB color, contrast stretched,
and unsharp masked (50%, 7 pix), and rescaled by 50%. (2005/10/29 00:47 EDT).
A nice improvement over my former photographic attempts at the last opposition
two years ago.
(B): Same exposures and processing, but not as nice a result. Maybe poorer focus.
After several days a different martian longitude
is visible at roughly the same time of night. There is a hint of some haze near
the north pole. (2005/11/04 00:12 EST)
(C): This image is a little different. 9x1/8 sec images, ISO 200, 4x zoom,
12.5 mm eyepiece. The camera was set to its black and white setting, and a
red filter was used on the eyepiece. A single 1/8 sec ISO 100 exposure
was used as a color layer to colorize the averaged image. Unsharp masking
was applied and some enhancement of the color saturation. Overall, it's not a
great picture, but it does seem a little better than the result from
standard color images that I tried at the same time. (2005/11/12 22:48 EST)
(D): 5x1/8 sec exposures, ISO 100, 4x zoom, 12.5 mm eyepiece.
Images where aligned, averaged, realigned by RGB color, contrast stretched,
and unsharp masked (50%, 7 pix), and rescaled by 50%. The angular scale here
is the same as in the previous pictures. Mars is now clearly receding.
It's angular size has shrunk from 20" to 17", but surface details can still
be discerned. (2005/11/30 23:19 EST).
(E): 6x1/8 sec exposures, ISO 100, 4x zoom, 12.5 mm eyepiece.
Images where aligned, averaged, realigned by RGB color, contrast stretched,
and unsharp masked (50%, 7 pix), and rescaled by 50%. The angular scale here
is the same as in the previous pictures. Now Mars is only 14"
in diameter, and taking on a gibbous phase (94% illuminated). (2005/12/19 23:29 EST).
(F): 9x1/8 sec exposures, ISO 100, 4x zoom, 12.5 mm eyepiece.
Images where aligned, averaged, realigned by RGB color, contrast stretched,
and unsharp masked (50%, 7 pix), and rescaled by 50%. The angular scale here
is the same as in the previous pictures. Now Mars is now 10"
in diameter -- half it's size at opposition. The gibbous phase (now only 90% illuminated)
is more pronounced, though harder to recognize with the small image size and
mediocre quality. (2006/01/18 20:38 EST).
Mars ... without a telescope.
8x24 sec exposures, ISO 200, 1.8x zoom. Hand guided. (2005/10/30 00:43 EDT).
(2005/10/30)
NGC 7662: Yet another small blue nebula. The star is ~500" away, shining at 8.2 mag. The image is a stack of 3 24-sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. (2005/10/01)
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This is a very poor picture, yet I'm still pleased to have gotten anything at for this large far-southern galaxy. It took 4 48-sec ISO 400 exposures, background subtraction, and heavy heavy smoothing. There was only a very slight hint of the galaxy in the raw images. (2005/10/01).
I stumbled across Enif by accident, as I was using it for a focus check. It's merely a
visual double, and not a true binary system. (Enif: 2005/9/11, others: 2005/10/01)
The Andromeda Galaxy (Messier 31) is a nearby neighbor within the Local Group of galaxies. It is also the most distant object that can be seen with the naked eye. The first picture below shows a view of the galaxy obtained from 22 64-sec ISO 400 exposures at 4x zoom with my Kodak DX7440 tracking by hand on my barndoor mount. (2005/09/28; under seemingly excellent transparency for MD). The galaxy's bulge is clear. The disk is very faintly visible, extending diagonally over about half the size of this cropped image. Stars as faint as 9th mag are detected. The image is linked to the original wider field image in which I think it's easier to see the faint disk. (It may help to adjust your monitor's brightness.) Simply mousing over the image points out one of the dwarf elliptical companions (M32), and shows the approximate area covered by the second, telescopic picture.
In this second photo, the Andromeda Galaxy extends well outside the field of view. This relatively short exposure image only reveals the inner bulge of the galaxy (much like the other cases below). This image is an average of 4 32-sec exposures at ISO 400 and 1x zoom, through the Meade ETX-105 and a 25 mm eyepiece. Stars as faint as 13th mag are detected. (2005/09/08).
Uranus (left) might barely be seen by a keen-eyed observer under ideal
conditions. Telescopically, it is simple to locate, but still easy to overlook because
of its small angular size. More distant and fainter Neptune (right) is harder
to locate and recognize, but careful examination at high power reveals an
exceedingly tiny disk. Both planets appear slightly bluish to the eye, and more so
in photographs. The data for the Uranus image are: 3.7" diam, 5.72 mag,
2005/09/12 04:16 UT, 3x1 sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom with a 12.5mm eyepiece
on a Meade ETX-105. Neptune is 2.3" diam, 7.84 mag, 2005/09/12 02:51 UT, 9x1 sec
ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom with a 12.5mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105. (The faint
star is 9.59 mag and 182" from Neptune). In both cases, I took 10 - 20 frames
but only averaged the best ones featuring the smallest roundest images.
Both pictures have been stretched to brighten the planets and darken the background.
I'm not entirely certain that the planets are really resolved, or whether the
apparent difference in size is merely an effect of the different brightnesses.
The angular scale in these images is very nearly the same as in the set of
Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter images below.
This was just a test to see if I could
get a picture of a large sunspot group without a telescope. I held a (green)
12-H welding filter in front of the camera and had the camera set
to minimize the sensitivity: ISO 80, 1/1000 sec, 4x zoom, f9.5. I shot
about a dozen separate frames and averaged the six sharpest looking frames.
I did not stretch or sharpen the resulting image, but I did rotate it
so that N is up. The result is about what I expected. (2005/09/11)
More experimentally, four days later I tried photographing the the sunspot group via a coincidental camera obscura formed by a small gap between a pair of curtains and the window shade and frame on a west facing window. I thought I could barely see the sunspot group on the image that was projected on the opposite wall of the room. However, photographing it proved difficult with respect to the focus and low light levels. Still, my pictures make a nice little animation of the sun sinking behind some distant trees. (All the images are 1 sec exposures at ISO 100 and 4x zoom. They have been flipped vertically and aligned by hand.)
The brightest star to the west (right) of Altair is 190" distant and 9.7 mag.
There seems to be a color difference between the stars of ζ Aqr, but I suspect that's
largely a result of atmospheric refraction.
In the linked, deep image of μ Cep, there are at least two equally red (but much fainter) stars.
The brightest of these fainter red stars is 324" from μ Cep (to the NW) and 10.6 mag.
(2005/09/08)
M 27: The Dumbbell Nebula. The image is a stack of 5 16-sec ISO 400
exposures at 1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. Even after
subtraction of median smoothed backgrounds and a strong enhancement of contrast,
the large nebula is only barely visible. (2005/09/08)
NGC 7009: The Saturn Nebula. The image is a stack of 4 8-sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. (2005/09/08)
Much more fleeting conjunctions are shown here. At left, Venus and Jupiter are separated by 74' on
2005 September 1. (Somewhat murky skies in Bowie, MD. 1 sec at ISO 100 4x zoom.)
At right, Venus and Jupiter are separated by 308' on 2005 September 6, but Spica
and a nice crescent Moon are also on the scene. (Clear skies in Frostburg, MD.
3 sec at ISO 100 4x zoom.)
Here are two more constellation-wide photos. The first is centered on Cepheus - looking towards
the outer parts of the Milky Way (7x32 sec). The other picture includes Delphinus, Sagitta, and Aqulila
(in the linked, full-size picture; 6x32 sec). (2005/08/31)
Two nice large bright clusters in Scorpius. In good dark skies, they are visible
to the naked eye. These pictures were taken under the light of a nearly full moon, and through
slightly hazy skies. It's taken me a while to capture these because of
the weather, and because looking this far south requires setting up my telescope
in alt-az mode.
(M6,M7) = (2,3)x6sec images, ISO 400, 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece. 2005/08/17
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Sh 225 and Sh 226 are separated by only 7' and fit easily in a single field
of view. They're shown on a rather different scale than the other stars.
χ Cyg is only duplicitous metaphorically. It's a long period variable star
which can vary between 3.5 and 14 (!) magnitude. Here, it's at 6th mag. and fading
after having peaked at 5th mag. about two months earlier. At minimum it will be several
magnitudes fainter than any stars visible in the linked, wider field of view!
α¹ Cap (AB sep. = 45"; 4.6 + 9.2 mag.; 7x2.0sec images; 2.7x zoom; 25 mm eyepiece)
α² Cap (AB sep. = 154"; 3.5 + 9.5 mag.)
α¹ and α² are separated by 378".
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| The full moon on 2004 Nov. 26, 11 PM EST. This is a mosaic of 5 exposures (after conversion to grayscale), with a sixth low-resolution full moon image layered on top to provide the color. | The full moon on 2005 Jul. 21, 12:30 AM EDT. This is a single 1/90th sec exposure, ISO 80. The image was sharpened slightly, and the color was desaturated (the original was reddened by low elevation and hazy skies. |
This image is a combination of 10x6sec images
at 1x zoom, which shows many other fainter stars in a wider field, than
the older picture below. 2005/07/20
A small sparse cluster of stars in Cygnus. 8x12sec images, ISO 400. 25mm eyepiece.
| 1 Ceres: 1 day motion | 14 Irene: 1 day motion |
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| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures |
| 1 | Ceres | 2.15 | 7.2 | 950 | 2005/07/10 02:05 | 2005/07/11 02:12 | [7,7]x6sec |
| 14 | Irene | 1.65 | 9.4 | 180 | 2005/07/10 02:27 | 2005/07/11 02:19 | [6,6]x6sec |
On the 4th of July, 2005, Mercury appeared a red as Mars, but more irregular
because of the first-quarter phase of the planet. The redness is an
artifact caused by the low elevation and lots of haze. Venus is normally
brilliantly white, but is also reddened by low elevation. The phase of Venus is
nearly full, giving the planet a nearly circular profile. Jupiter's image was
taken largely as a focus check. It was high in the southwest and so,
unlike the other planets, it was not badly affected by haze and poor seeing.
Europa's small shadow can barely be seen near the center of the disk near
the northern equatorial belt. If the contrast is stretched, Io is just barely
visible to the west (right) after having completed its transit.
All three pictures are reproduced on the same angular scale. All were taken with
the Meade ETX-105 + 25 mm eyepiece. Mercury and Venus images are single frames
at 4x zoom, ISO 200, and 1/4 and 1/15 sec exposures. RGB channels were realigned
and the contrast was stretched. The Jupiter image is a stack of 10x1/15 sec
exposures. The RGB channels of the final image were realigned, and a light
unsharp masking was applied.
2005/07/04 about 9:15 PM EDT
There's been a nice long-lasting conjunction between Venus and Mercury this week.
The weather has been typical for summer, yet through thick haze and between
clouds I've managed the pictures below.
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31' separation 2005/06/25 21:30 EDT 3x2 sec, ISO 400, 4x zoom |
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47' separation 2005/06/30 21:06 EDT 2 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom |
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57' separation 2005/07/01 21:15 EDT 2 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom |
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66' separation 2005/07/02 21:09 EDT 2 sec, ISO 100, 3.3x zoom |
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74' separation 2005/07/03 21:01 EDT 1/4 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom |
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115' separation 2005/07/08 21:20 EDT 2 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom |
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127' separation 2005/07/09 21:21 EDT 2 sec, ISO 100, 4x zoom |
A hot hazy day with a little high cirrus. SOHO pictures show no spots and only a few small faculae near the limb. My pictures look entirely blank. 6" telescope, 25mm eyepiece, 1.8x zoom, 4 Mpix, ISO 80, 1/1000 sec, f/4. Reduced in scale to 25%, and stretched in Photoshop Elements. (2005/06/25)
ε Lyr
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α Sco ξ Sco  ο¹ Cyg 
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α Her 95 Her  70 Oph 
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Barnard's Star
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ε Lyr (sep. = 208" 1.7" 2.3"; (4.7+6.0)+(4.6+5.3) mag.; 6x0.25sec images; 3.3x zoom, 12.5mm eyepiece),
α Sco (Antares; 1.0 mag.; 5x0.25sec images; 4x zoom, 25mm eyepiece),
α Her (AB sep. = 5"; 2.2 + 5.3 mag.; 2x0.1sec images; 4x zoom, 12.5mm eyepiece)
ξ Sco (AB sep. = 7.4"; 4.2 + 7.2 mag.; 10x1sec images; 4x zoom, 12.5mm eyepiece),
95 Her (AB sep. = 6.3"; 4.3 + 5.1 mag.; 5x0.25sec images; 4x zoom, 25mm eyepiece)
ο¹ Cyg (AB sep. = 336" AC sep. = 106"; 3.8 + 4.8 + 7.0 mag.; 5x0.25sec images; 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece),
70 Oph (AB sep. = 4.1"; 4.1 + 6.2 mag.; 5x0.25sec images; 4x zoom, 25mm eyepiece),
Barnard's Star (9.5 mag.; 12x4sec images; 1x zoom, 25mm eyepiece)
The apparent 11.5 mag companion to Barnard's Star is 57" away. However, because the proper motion of
Barnard's Star carries it to the North at 10.3"/yr, this "companion" will be quickly left behind. (Check again next year.)
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105.
(2005/06/24; 2005/06/27 for Barnard's Star).
This simple picture of the constellation Corona Borealis is a link to a much larger image of the full constellation Bootes, and nearly all of Corona Borealis. In neighboring constellations, the globular clusters M3 and M5 are fairly easy to detect in the full image if you know where to look. There seems to be an unusually large number of stellar pairs and triplets in this field. 11x32sec ISO 400 1x zoom pictures. (2005/05/31).
From left to right:
α Lyr (Vega; AB sep. = 70"; 0.0 + 10 mag.; 0.25+0.5+1+2+4+8+16+32sec images; 1x zoom),
β Lyr (AB sep. = 45"; 3.4 + 6.7 mag.; 4x1sec images; 2.2x zoom),
β Cyg (AB sep. = 34"; 3.0 + 5.1 mag.; 6x1sec images; 4x zoom),
β Sco (AB sep. = 13"; 2.5 + 4.9 mag.; 5x0.5sec images; 4x zoom),
α Her (AB sep. = 5"; 2.2 + 5.3 mag.; 4x0.25sec images; 4x zoom)
The Vega image is a strange combination, but with a gamma=2.00 stretch, this seems
to work pretty well for showing a wide range of brightness. Vega's companion (to the south)
is merely another more distant star along the same line of sight. The linked image shows
a wider field of view.
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105 with a 25 mm eyepiece.
(2005/05/28).
The red spot is visible, though not prominent. The moons from left to right are:
Ganymede, Europa, Callisto, and Io.
This used a Meade ETX-105 telescope with a 12.5 mm eyepiece.
The image is a stack of 18x1/8sec exposures at ISO 400, 4x zoom.
After aligning and averaging the frames, I separated the RGB color channels and
realigned those. An unsharp mask (150%, radius = 10pix) was also applied.
Lastly, I stretched the image, excluding Jupiter itself, to make the moons
more visible.
2005/05/28 9:18 PM EDT
M 57: The Ring Nebula. The image is a stack of 10 16-sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. The brightest star in the cropped image is 11 mag and 308" away; the faint star to the left of the ring is 12th mag and 59" away. (2005/05/28)
Jupiter, another month after my last picture. Io is invisible, just about to end a transit
across Jupiter's Disk, but it's shadow is in the middle of the northern equatorial belt.
Europa is faintly visible to the right. There's a hint of the slight change in phase of Jupiter
over the interval.
Meade ETX-105 with a 12.5 mm eyepiece.
The camera was set to ISO 400, 4x zoom.
The image is a stack of 10x1/8sec exposures.
After aligning and averaging the frames, I separated the RGB color channels and
realigned those. A light unsharp mask (100%, radius = 5pix) was also applied.
2005/05/26 10:45 PM EDT
The images are stacks of 19 and 16 12-sec exposures (1 Mpix, ISO 800 at 1x zoom) through a Meade ETX-105 and a 25 mm eyepiece (2005/05/26). I think I get better results with the 4 Mpix, ISO 400 setting (as for the globular clusters below).
This famous pair of nearby galaxies is found in Ursa Major, above the
bowl of the Big Dipper. Their separation is just a little too large
for me to photograph in a single field. Each of theses images is an average
of 11 32-sec exposures at ISO 400 and 1x zoom, through the Meade ETX-105 and
a 25 mm eyepiece. I was surprised to see some of the red color (Hα emission)
of the star forming regions in M82.
(2005/05/10).
M 64 is the "Black Eye Galaxy". Here I only see a bright nucleus and
a faint wide disk. (12x16sec ISO 400 exposures)
M 94 shows a larger brighter core, but less of a disk in 8x16 sec ISO 400
exposures.
NGC 5907 is probably about 40 times fainter than most of the other
galaxies I've tried imaging. I took 3 32-sec ISO 800 (1 Mpix) exposures,
but then moved on because I thought I had nothing. After stacking the images,
the thin sliver of the edge-on galaxy was faintly but clearly visible. This
image was heavily processed by converting the RGB layers of each color image
to grayscale, and then averaging the stack of 9 grayscale images. A background
was similarly constructed from the median-smoothed unregistered images and
subtracted. The stars in the field are from 11.3 to 13.4 mag.
(2005/05/08, 2005/05/10, 2005/05/10).
NGC 6210: This planetary nebula (PN) image is from a stack of 3 12-sec ISO 400 images at
2x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. This PN seemed smaller and fainter,
but could still be seen in single frames. The image quality may have been degraded by
dew on the telescope's corrector plate, but the nearby (276") red star (9.4 mag, B-V=1.96) seems
pretty sharp. (2005/05/04)
NGC 6543: This is the famous Cat's Eye Nebula. The image is a stack of 8 12-sec ISO 400 exposures at 1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. The star in the image is 9.8 mag and 162" away. (2005/05/10)
This time I tried capturing a bright Iridium flare in the twilight using my camera's video mode. To process the data, I saved a 20-sec segment of the video as separate PNG images (13 fps -> 260 images). I averaged the images in sets of 5, adjusted the stretch to be [0,100], and cropped the images to 256x256 pixels. A single averaged frame is shown at left. Clicking on that image takes you to an animated GIF (2.4 MB in size) which recombines the average frames at approximately the original rate. So I've decreased the noise, at the expense of increasing the choppiness of the video. Overall, it's not a bad rendition of what the flare really looks like. (The angular length of the flare seems smaller here than the flare shown below because in video mode the camera operates at 0.3 Mpix instead of 4 Mpix.) A second flare from Iridium 94 occurred in the same location just 2 minutes, later. Both flares were supposed to be -8 mag, but the second was obviously fainter and too dim to show up in the video. 2005/05/02 20:30:26 EDT.
On the night of April 28 (UT), I managed to image each of these asteroids with
two series of pictures about one hour apart. I combined the good images from
each of the two epochs and made these animated GIFs to show the apparent motion
of the asteroids in the 1 hr interval. In each case the asteroid is moving
northwest (to the upper right). Each image shows a 19'x19' field of view at
a scale of 4.5"/pixel. Meade ETX-105 + 25 mm eyepiece + 1x camera zoom.
The Hebe images are affected by an increasing amount of dew on the telescope corrector plate.
| No. | Name | Dist. (au) | Mag. | Diameter (km) | Time(1) | Time(2) | Exposures |
| 2 | Pallas | 1.63 | 7.2 | 525 | 2005/04/28 02:37 | 2005/04/28 03:39 | [5,5]x6sec |
| 6 | Hebe | 2.00 | 9.5 | 190 | 2005/05/05 03:03 | 2005/05/05 04:02 | [8,8]x6sec |
| 10 | Hygiea | 1.98 | 9.2 | 444 | 2005/04/28 02:46 | 2005/04/28 03:47 | [10,10]x6sec |
| 29 | Amphitrite | 1.79 | 9.3 | 212 | 2005/04/28 02:58 | 2005/04/28 03:54 | [10,6]x6sec |
From left to right:
Arcturus (α Boo; -0.07 mag.; 1x1/60sec image; 4x zoom),
ε Boo (AB sep. = 2.4"; 2.3 + 4.8 mag.; 6x0.1sec images; 4x zoom),
μ Boo (AB sep. = 108", BC sep. = 2.2"; 4.3 + 6.5 + 7.6 mag.; 12x0.25sec images; 4x zoom),
ζ CrB (AB sep. = 6.3"; 4.6 + 5.9 mag.; 9x0.25sec images; 4x zoom),
R CrB (5.9var mag.; 7x4sec images; 4x zoom),
Spica (α Vir; 0.96 mag.; 1x0.5sec images; 4x zoom),
ν Dra (AB sep. = 61"; 4.8 + 4.9 mag.; 7x0.5sec images; 4x zoom),
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105 with a 12.5mm (first two)
and 25 mm (last five) eyepieces.
There's another lower-magnification longer-exposure image of Arcturus below, but I
include this one because it clearly shows the first diffraction ring of the
telescope's point spread function. The asymmetry of the ring is probably due to a
slight misalignment of the camera. The BC pair in the μ Boo image can be seen more
clearly in the linked larger picture.
(2005/04/25, 2005/04/27, 2005/05/04, 2005/05/08).
While this picture seems similar to those galaxy images below, the major difference is that this one was taken without a telescope. It's a stack of 6x64 sec 1x zoom ISO 400 images taken with my barndoor mount. The contrast has been adjusted. (2004/11/06, reprocessed 2005/04/21)
From left to right:
α Boo (-0.07 mag.; 5x0.25sec images; 4x zoom),
δ Crv (AB sep. = 23"; 2.9 + 9.4 mag.; 6x1sec images; 4x zoom),
Y CVn (5.4 mag.; 4x1sec images; 4x zoom),
α Leo (AB sep. = 180"; 1.3 + 8.1 mag.; 5x0.5sec image; 4x zoom),
Y CVn can also be found in the Ursa Major and Coma Berenices pictures below.
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105 with a 25mm eyepiece
(2005/04/10 and 2005/04/16).
What's seen here is really just the brighter inner cores of the clusters. Still, many red giants can be identified in the first two. The total magnitudes of these clusters are 5.7, 6.4, and 7.6. So M 3 is 3x brighter than M 53, and M 13 is 2x brighter than M 3. The images are stacks of 5 16-sec (M3) and 6 12-sec (M13 and M53) guided exposures (ISO 400 at 1x zoom) through a Meade ETX-105 and a 25 mm eyepiece (2005/04/16 and 2005/04/10 [M53]).
NGC 3242: This planetary nebula (PN) image is from a stack of 12 6-sec ISO 400 images at
1x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution, Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece. The PN can easily
be seen in a single 6-sec image. I was very surprised to find how bright this turned
out, especially considering the southern declination and hence low elevation of
the source when imaged. The bright star is 9.9 mag and ~300" distant. (2005/04/16)
The quasar is the source at the center of this image. I was expecting it to look bluish; maybe it does. This image required only 6 16-sec frames to be averaged together. Detecting such a distant (almost 2 billion lightyears!) object is greatly aided by the fact that it's a point source, and not an extended diffuse source like more nearby galaxies. (2005/04/16).
With a bigger telescope and deeper integration, this would be a real nice picture. Here, all that can be seen is the core of M51 (fuzzy white blob at center), and the core of the elliptical companion galaxy NGC 5195 (fuzzy orange blob to the North). This is a stack of 13 32-sec ISO 400 images. (2005/04/10)
These galaxies were photographed in separate sets of 6 32-sec images. The images were stacked, background subtracted, and contrast enhanced. I then mosaicked the two partly-overlapping fields together. A little more contrast adjustment was done, and a final conversion to grayscale to circumvent color balance problems. You can see in the end, it's just possible to tell that two galaxies are present. The linked image shows a wider field of view. (2005/04/10)
Clouds prevented me from seeing the April 8th 2005 partial solar eclipse, but the next day was crystal clear. I hadn't thought ahead to shoot the Moon at this time, so when I happened to spot it just after sunset I had to hurry to grab my camera, telephoto lens, and a tripod before the Moon set. This one picture turned out nice and sharp. Click on the image at left for a medium-sized image of the full scene or here for the full-screen sized image. (1 sec, ISO 80, 4x2x zoom x telephoto lens)
The following day I was better prepared for taking some pictures telescopically. I was hoping to get some interesting details near the limb of the Moon. Bright twilight and relatively poor seeing at the low elevation makes for unspectacular results. Still, if you stare at the single frame image at left (Meade ETX-105 + 25mm eyepiece), you can faintly seen the lunar maria illuminated by earthshine. Click on the image to see a more greatly magnified (12.5 mm eyepiece) and shorter-exposure mosaic of 5 frames. Here is the full-size 5-frame mosaic. (1 sec, ISO 80, 4x2x zoom x telephoto lens)
The Coma picture is a combination of 10 24sec frames. The Leo picture combines 8 64sec frames, and goes a bit deeper as suggested by the flatter blacker background. Both sets of pictures were taken at ISO 400 and 1x zoom. Both linked pictures are on the original scale (about 40 pix/degree) 2005/04/08.
From left to right:
ζ Cnc (AB sep. = 0.8", AC sep. = 6.0"; 5.6 + 6.0 + 6.2 mag.; 3x1sec images; 4x zoom),
ι Cnc (AB sep. = 30.5"; 4.2 + 6.6 mag.; 5x1sec images; 2.2x zoom),
54 Leo (AB sep. = 6.5"; 4.5 + 6.5 mag.; 11x0.5sec images; 4x zoom),
ξ UMa (AB sep. = 1.8"; 4.3 + 4.8 mag.; 1x0.25sec image; 4x zoom),
α CVn (AB sep. = 20"; 2.8 + 5.6 mag.; 4x0.125sec image; 4x zoom),
The very close AB pair of ζ Cnc cannot be resolved here.
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105 with a 12.5mm eyepiece
(2005/04/05), except for Cor Caroli (α CVn) which was with my 6" reflector and 25mm
eyepiece (2005/05/09).
(first image) Callisto and Io can be seen to the left. Ganymede is to the right. Europa is in transit
across the face of Jupiter, but it's shadow can barely be seen along the north edge
of the northern equatorial belt. I wasn't trying to capture the shadow (I was unaware
it was there until I checked later).
(second image) Jupiter, a month later. Nothing special happening here, but perhaps this
is a better quality picture.
Both pictures used my Meade ETX-105 with a 25 mm eyepiece.
The camera was set to ISO 400, 4x zoom. The first image is a stack of 5x1/20sec exposures.
The second image is a stack of 10x1/30sec exposures.
After aligning and averaging the frames, I separated the RGB color channels and
realigned those. A light unsharp mask (50%, radius = 5pix) was also applied.
2005/03/20 11:46 PM EST, and 2005/04/25 11:49 PM EDT
The crater Aristarchus and surroundings. 1/3 sec. 6-inch telescope. 12.5mm eyepiece. 2005/03/21
19:48:29 EST.
The flat antennas on Iridium satellites create very bright reflections over a very small area of the Earth's surface. If you happen to be near the track of one of these bright reflected beams as it sweeps along, you can see the satellite briefly outshine everything in the sky, apart from the Sun and the Moon. In this case, I was located 12.2 km from the center of the beam's north-to-south track, yet the apparent brightness of the satellite (Iridium 75) still reached -4 mag. The picture here was a 64 sec guided exposure at 1x zoom, f2.8, and ISO 80. The total time the satellite was visible was probably less than 20 seconds. The head of the constellation Hydra can be see near the lower end of the flare, and the Beehive Cluster (M44) in the center of Cancer is a bit more distant from the start of the flare. High thin clouds and a 1st quarter Moon made for a bright background sky. The picture has been rotated and cropped (and rescaled for the thumbnail version at left), but no contrast adjustments were applied. 2005/03/18 19:29:24 EST.
The first quarter moon on 2005 Mar 15. The full size image is not particularly good. 6-inch telescope, 26mm eyepiece, 1/60th sec exposure at f/2.8, 5.5mm focal length (1.0x zoom), and ISO 80. The original image was rotated, down-sized, and cropped.
Theophilus is the prominent crater on the terminator on the west side of the Mare Nectaris.
The mountains along the east side of Mare Nectaris are the Pyrenees Mountains.
6-inch telescope, 6 mm eyepiece, 1/6th sec + 1/15th sec
exposure at f/4.8, 22mm focal length (4x zoom), and ISO 400.
The two pictures were balance for contrast, converted to grayscale, combined using a
"lighten" function, masked where the discontinuity of the vignetting looked bad,
and rescaled to a smaller size (about 25%).
Also known as the Beehive Cluster, or The Praesepe, M 44 is relatively easy to spot with the naked eye even with moderate light pollution. It lies at the center of Cancer, half-way between Gemini and the Sickle of Leo. This image is a stack of 6 64-sec guided exposures at 4x zoom and a 2x telephoto lens. A median-filtered background images was subtracted and the contrast was stretched a bit. The image is a little deeper and higher resolution than my earlier wide angle images of this region. (2005/03/14). M 67 is a smaller fainter older cluster of stars. This telescopic view is a combination of 6 6-sec (ISO 400, 1x zoom) frames taken through a Meade ETX-105 + 25 mm eyepiece. (2005/04/10).
A wider view of Mizar and Alcor (mags. = 2.2+3.8 and 4.0) This one is a stack of 7 1/10-sec exposures. No telephoto lens this time. 2005/03/14.
(Mouseover the image to have the moons identified.)
Four or five of Saturn's moon can be seen in this image. The setup used my Meade ETX-105
with a 12.5 mm eyepiece. The camera was set to ISO 400, 4x zoom, and 3-second exposures.
The image shown here is a stack of 7 frames.
After aligning and averaging the frames, I separated the RGB color channels and
realigned those. Finally, I made a very modest change to the gamma of the image to bring
out the faint details. The detection of the faintest moon, Enceladus,
is a little questionable. The reddish color of Titan is probably real, but it's
not something I notice when looking through the eyepiece.
Magnitudes: Saturn -0.07, Titan 8.1, Rhea 9.5, Tethys 10.0, Dione 10.2, Enceladus 11.5.
2005/03/14 8:55 PM EST.
(Mouseover the image to have the moons identified.)
This was a semi-serious attempt to image Saturn's moons. The setup used my Meade ETX-105
with a 12.5 mm eyepiece. The camera was set to ISO 400, 4x zoom, and 4-second exposures.
I was hoping that with this exposure time the telescope's tracking wouldn't drift too much,
and Saturn wouldn't get too overexposed.
I think the distortion of Titan is more due to the camera/telescope optical system than
the tracking.
The image shown here is a stack of 6 frames.
After aligning and averaging the six frames, I separated the RGB color channels and
realigned those. Finally, I made a very strong change to the gamma of the image to bring
out the faint details. In the unstretched
images the gaps between the rings and the planet can still be seen, and the small notch
along the bottom edge of the rings (cause by Saturn's shadow) is much more distinct.
Only Titan could be seen without the gamma stretch. The faintest
moons, Dione and Enceladus, are questionable, but they are at the right locations.
Magnitudes: Saturn -0.07, Titan 8.14, Rhea 9.52, Tethys 10.02, Dione 10.22, Enceladus 11.52.
2005/03/05 19:38 PM EST.
Saturn. This is a average of 10 1/4-sec ISO 400 exposures with a Kodak DX7440 camera
at 4x optical zoom (F=22mm) pointed into a 12.5 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105 (F=1470mm)
telescope. After aligning and averaging the images, the contrast was enhanced
and the RGB channels were realigned by hand. An unsharp masking (50%, radius = 10pix)
was then applied. Lastly, the image was reduced in scale by a factor of 2.
Because of the change in the relative positions of Saturn and the Earth,
the shadow of the planet across its rings is much clearer than in the image below
taken about 2 months earlier.
From left to right:
Rigel (β Ori: 0.15 mag.; 5x0.1sec images),
Sirius (α CMa: -1.46 mag.; 5x0.1sec images),
Betelgeuse (α Ori: 0.43 mag.; 3x0.1 sec images),
β Mon (AB sep. = 7.2", BC sep. = 2.9"; 3.75 + 5.00 + 5.31 mag.; 4x0.5sec images),
σ Ori (AC sep. = 11.2", AD sep. = 12.9", AE sep. = 42"; 3.75 + 10 + 6.78 + 6.34 mag.; 4x2.0sec images),
Polaris (α UMi: AB sep. = 18", 2.0v + 8.2 mag.; 4x4sec images).
The AB pair of stars in σ Ori are separated by only 0.25" and cannot be seen here, and
the faint C component can only be seen in a greatly
stretched version of the picture.
The stretched version also shows the faint wide triple system Σ761.
The wider field picture of Sirius is a single 3-sec exposure which also captures
three nearby 8th magnitude stars.
These were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105
with a 12.5mm eyepiece and the camera's 4x zoom. 2005/03/05 (except 2005/03/14 for Sirius,
and 2005/3/30 and a 25 mm eyepiece for Polaris).
The constellation Orion. This is not a very good rendition, but it's a lot better than my old image at the bottom of the page. The limiting magnitude of the picture is about 7.8 mag. Apart from the obvious clusters and nebulae of the Sword (M42, M42, and NGC 1981), the star cluster NGC 1662 can be seen faintly in the NW portion of the image if you know where to look. Click for the higher resolution view. This image is a stack of 13 32-sec guided exposures at 1.2x zoom. A median-filtered background images was subtracted and the contrast was stretched a bit. 2005/03/03.
While visiting in Kansas, with M. Schenewerk, we attached my camera to his
Celestron NexStar 5 telescope, with focal reducer and 25 mm eyepiece for a few pictures.
The skies in his suburban KC backyard are more light polluted than mine, but the
results were still quite good. Stars are visible to about 12.7 mag in the first three images,
and to about 13.0 mag in the last image. Click on each picture for an expanded version.
2005/02/25
The Great Nebula of Orion, Messier 42. This is a single 32 second exposure at ISO 400.
A median-filtered background was subtracted and the contrast was stretched.
The
open star cluster, Messier 47. This is a stack of 3 12 second exposures at ISO 400.
A median-filtered background was subtracted and the contrast was stretched.
The
open star cluster, Messier 46. This is a stack of 3 12 second exposures at ISO 400.
A median-filtered background was subtracted and the contrast was stretched.
The open star cluster NGC 2264. This image is an average of two stacks of 5 16 second
exposures. The first stack was at ISO 400; the second at ISO 800. Each stack had a
median-filtered background subtracted, and the ISO 400 image was reduced in scale by a
factor of 0.5 to match the pixel scale of the other image. (My camera only does ISO 800 for
1 megapixel images. Normally I shoot at the camera's full 4 MP resolution.) We were seeing if we
could pick up any hint of the nebulosity in this region, but only the stars are visible.
From left to right: Castor (α Gem: 3.1" sep. 1.6 + 3.0 mag.), Algieba (γ Leo: 4.6" sep. 2.0 + 3.6 mag.), and Mizar (ζ UMa: 14" sep. 2.2 + 3.8 mag.). Each of the visible stars in Castor and Mizar is an unresolved binary system, with orbital periods of 3 - 180 days. The images are stacks of 6, 3, and 5 1/15-sec frames, with a contrast adjustment, cropped, and rescaled at 25%. They were shot via afocal projection on my Meade ETX-105 with a 25mm eyepiece and the camera's 4x zoom + 2x telephoto lens. 2005/02/12.
The Big Dipper at left. Click for a wider and higher resolution view of nearly the entire constellation of Ursa Major. A couple of nice red stars (RY Dra and Y CVn) are visible. Messier 81 is almost visible, but other deep sky objects are definitely too faint to be seen. This image is a stack of 10 48-sec guided exposures. A median-filtered background images was subtracted and the contrast was stretched a bit. 2005/02/11.
At left is the Praesepe or Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer. The distinctly red star is the irregular variable X Cancri. Click on the picture for a large wide-field view that includes Saturn, the bright stars Castor, Pollux, and Procyon, smaller fainter star clusters M67 and M35, and parts of the constellations Cancer, Gemini, Leo, Leo Minor, Canis Minor, Hydra, and Lynx (and some trees). This image is a combination of 14 30-sec guided exposures at ISO 400 with 1x zoom. 2005/02/05.
The Great Nebula of Orion. A stack of 10 6-sec exposures at ISO 800 (1 Mpix resolution) with a 25mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105. Click for a marginally higher magnification image generated from a stack of 9 6-sec ISO 400 images at 1.2x zoom and 4 Mpix resolution. In that picture, all four stars of the trapezium can be counted.
Comet Machholz on 2005 Jan 30 23:45 EST.
This is a stack of 6 24-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440 at 1x
optical zoom. The camera is looking through a 25 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105.
The greater magnification shows a better distinction between the nucleus
and coma than in the non-telescopic images below, but there's still not much detail.
This image is about 40' in diameter. The four bright stars are 8th - 9th magnitude.
The brightest star is visible in the wide field picture from Jan 30, below
(about 100 pix north (up) from the comet on that date).
An incremental improvement on photographing southern Orion. This image is an average of 7 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 and 8x (4x camera, 2x telephoto) zoom (44mm). A median smoothed image was subtracted to remove background emission, and the contrast was stretched individually in each of the color channels. Given the quality of the initial images, I was surprised to see this much of the nebula. 2005/01/30.
Click on the image to get a slightly larger field constructed from a stack of 23 12-sec ISO 800 frames (1MPix images), with the same camera zoom and telephoto lens. 2005/03/06
Comet Machholz on 2005 Jan 30 23:45 EST.
This is a stack of 4 guided 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440 at 4.0x
optical zoom. Clicking on the image will show a larger uncropped version.
A fairly randomly selected part of Auriga showing 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10 Aurigae. The stars 8 and 10 Aur are the southern two of the three "kids" near Capella. The open star cluster NCG 1778 is very barely visible at the extreme left edge of the image, but it just looks like a faint star. In this image some stars can be seen to about magnitude 9.4. The same field is visible in two of my wider field pictures below, but those pictures are clearly not as deep (only about 8.5 and 8.1 mag). This 6x8 degree image is an average of 6 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 and 8x zoom (44mm - the camera's 4x zoom with a 2x telephoto lens). A median smoothed image was subtracted to remove background emission. 2005/01/28.
The first quarter moon on 2005 Jan 17. This seems to be my best single-frame image of the moon to date, despite being slightly underexposed and perhaps vignetted at the northern end of the terminator. 6-inch telescope, 26mm eyepiece, 1/180th sec exposure at f/3.4, 8.2mm focal length (1.5x zoom), and ISO 100. The original image was rotated, down-sized, and cropped.
The large crater here is Albategnius. Klein is the smaller crater
within that is about 1/3 the size. 6-inch telescope, 12.5mm eyepiece, 1/90th sec
exposure at f/3.4, 22mm focal length (4x zoom), and ISO 400. The picture is cropped, but
no other adjustments were made.
This is my first try at solar photography
with the digital camera. Orion solar filter, 6-inch f/6 reflector telescope,
25 mm eyepiece, T-adapter, Kodak DX7440 camera at 4X zoom (22mm focal length),
f/9.5 aperture, 1/750 sec exposure at ISO 400. The original picture has been
cropped, reduced in scale by 50%, and converted to grayscale. Mosaicking several
frames to create a full sun image was hampered by fairly strong vignetting
in the corners the frames. Conditions were pretty poor: 2005, Jan 17, 1 PM EST,
32 degrees (F), gusty wind (W ~20 mph), moderately poor seeing,
and being January the Sun was naturally at a low elevation.
This graph shows the proton fluxes measured by the GOES11 satellite. The yellow bar indicates the time at which my picture was taken. I find it interesting that after the second flare, the >100 MeV proton flux decays almost perfectly as time^(-3) until a sudden drop at the time the region moves around the limb of the Sun.
At left are the stars and star clusters of Orion's sword. If you look real hard, stars can be seen to about magnitude 8.8. Click for half-resolution, wider-field view of the belt and sword. Because the wide field image is downsized, stars are only visible to about magnitude 8. These images are an average of 4 32-sec exposures at ISO 400 and 4x zoom (22mm). A median smoothed image was subtracted to remove background emission. 2005/01/09.
Comet Machholz near the Pleiades on 2005 Jan 09 23:45 EDT.
This is a stack of 5 guided 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440 at 4.0x
optical zoom. To illustrate the comet's motion,
the image at left is cropped and sized to match the one below, taken 25 hours
earlier. Clicking on the image will show a larger uncropped version.
Comet Machholz near the Pleiades on 2005 Jan 08 22:15 EDT.
This is a stack of 8 guided 24-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440 at 2.2x
optical zoom. Unfortunately this effort was limited by a relatively unstable setup
of my barndoor mount and some wispy cirrus that were creeping up from the southwest.
Comet Machholz in the constellation Taurus on 2005 Jan 01 19:40 EDT.
This is a stack of 8 guided 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440 using its 4x
optical zoom. The comet is the slightly blurry and slightly bluish object at the
center of this small picture.
The brightest star near the comet is 30 Tau. The comet is clearly brighter than it was
in early December (several pictures below on this page), though I still see no obvious tail.
The full image linked to this picture shows a wider region at the same scale, with some
sodium-vapor streetlight-lit treetops in the foreground.
This animated picture shows two frames from the above set that were taken 10 minutes apart.
The northward motion of the comet is evident even over this small period of time. I hadn't
been expecting to capture that in these images - an added bonus.
Saturn. This is a average of 9 1/4-sec ISO 200 exposures with a Kodak DX7440 camera at 4x optical zoom (F=22mm) pointed into a 12.5 mm eyepiece on a Meade ETX-105 (F=1470mm) telescope. After aligning and averaging the images, the contrast was enhanced (the original images are somewhat under exposed) and the RGB channels were realigned by hand. Lastly, the image was reduced in scale by a factor of 2. It could probably be smaller without loosing any particular detail. No sharpening has been applied.
Christmas Night 2004. Not too good for observing stars with a full moon and high clouds, but very nice for observing atmospheric refraction effects. The colored ring is the 22 degree halo. (The pink smear above the overexposed moon is just reflections in the camera's optics.)
The gibbous moon on 2004 Dec. 20, 9 PM EST. This is a mosaic of dozens of videos frames (small field of view) collected with a Meade electronic eyepiece. The Moon was drift scanned along 6 or 7 chords. Frames about 10 sec apart were selected from each scan to provide a fully covered mosaic with a fair amount of redundancy. After mosaicking the gamma was adjusted from 1 -> 1.5 in order to bring out fainter regions near the terminator. It was a cold night with fairly poor seeing. I used a green filter to try to reduce any chromatic effects.
Comet Machholz in the constellation Eridanus on 2004 Dec 05 00h EDT. This is a stack of 5 guided 64-sec exposures at ISO 400 with my Kodak DX7440. A median smoothed version of the image was subtracted to remove the background of moderately strong light pollution and maybe some thin cirrus or haze. The comet is the slightly blurry and slightly bluish object at the center of this small picture, or just below center in the large version. The brightest stars in the large image are the western part of Lepus. At roughly 5th magnitude, the comet was bright and easy to find in a 6-inch telescope, with a coma several arc minutes in diameter, though no obvious tail.
The Autumn Milky Way from Perseus to Auriga. (The cropped image at left only shows Auriga.) A close look at the full image reveals the open star clusters M34, M36, M37, M38, and M45.
The red giant Aldebaran (α Tau) and the almost resolved binary star Castor (α Gem). This is mostly a test of image sharpness and color for my afocal setup.
Theta-1 and theta-2 Tau: a pair of stars forming a naked eye double star in the Hyades. The expanded view shows a couple of fainter stars and real variations in color.
More digital pictures: Dawn, November 9, 2004. (1/4 sec, ISO 80, 4x optical zoom;
and 1/8 sec, ISO 140, 1x optical zoom).
This is very similar in depth and resolution to the picture of the Pleiades and Venus, below. However, this one is digital rather than film.
On the evening of Nov. 7, 2004 there was a strong display of the northern lights. I was
outside to try some constellation pictures with a new digital camera, when I noticed some
odd clouds. It still took another 5 minutes before I was sure it was an auroral display,
and not just light pollution and clouds. The first picture shows some of the vertical
pillars that would come and go in the north. The second shows a band which appeared
high to the south (the constellations Aquila, Delphinus, and Sagitta are visible).
The last is to the northeast as the lights seemed to be fading. Because of all the local
light pollution, the displays were not nearly as bright or colorful to the naked eye as
they appear in these pictures, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.
All pictures are 64 sec exposures. The first two are at an ISO 400 setting, and have been
adjusted to darken the overexposed background sky. The last is at an ISO 200 setting
and is not reprocessed.
Uranus on the evening of Nov. 7, 2004, amid stars of Aquarius and Capricornus. Click on the picture or here for a wider view. (Click here for an annotated image.)
An average of seven 64-sec exposures of the constellations of Cassiopeia and Perseus.
Capella and "The Kids" are visible at the lower right. The Double Cluster is almost
visible at the center of the picture.
The full size image looks best when viewed full-screen, as in a slide show.
(The cropped image at left just shows Cassiopeia.)
The contrasting double star γ Andromeda (Almach). The stars are 2nd
and 5th magnitude and are separated by 10". The brighter star is a K2 or K3 II bright giant.
The fainter star is actually a triple star system (of late B or early A stars).
This is an average of two 1-second exposures through a 6" telescope.
An early target for my first attempts at digital imaging was the Hyades and
Pleiades star clusters. Several stacker frames, contrast-adjusted. Overall the result
is very similar to the old film version that's shown below.
October 27, 2004 8:45 to 10:15 PM EDT at 15 minute intervals. 1/60th sec exposures on Kodak 400 HD film. 25mm eyepiece on 6" f/6 Newtonian reflector. No clock drive. Clouds moved in as totality set in. The sequence moves from right to left, as the Moon enters the Earth's Shadow.
These pictures were taken In August 2004 from Dumont Lake, up at Rabbit Ears Pass, CO. Son they're not really backyard pictures. They are some of my early attempts at deep wide-field imaging with my homebuilt barndoor mount. Click on each picture for a larger view.
1) Sgr, Oph, Sco.
Kodak HD 400 film
f/2 - 160(?) sec guided
8/8/04 Excellent conditions. Milky Way was brilliant.
Scanned @ 300dpi
Adjusted gamma, minimum levels per channel, and reduced color saturation.
Reduced scale by 50%
I can pick out stars to at least 10th mag, and Messier objects
4, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28.
2) Aql.
Same details as above.
The star cluster
M 11 is in the lower right (though it looks much like a blue star), and nearby is the deep red
star V Aql. I find it a bit surprising that despite the overall
bluish look, these Mira-type stars seem to show up so distinctly.
Just by chance, there's just a bit of overlap between this picture
and the previous one.
3) Sco.
Same details as above, except less reduction in scale.
The tail of Scorpius including star clusters M 7 and M 6.
The smaller cluster (M 6) looks like bad guiding, but in fact that's really the way the
stars are distributed. With the right light you can see the darker ridgeline in
at the bottom. Some of the stars very close to the horizon are reddened
by the atmosphere.
Here are a pair of pictures from the transit of Venus on June 8, 2004. These were taken with a solar filter on my 6" f/6 reflector, 25 mm eyepiece, afocal projection, Kodak Gold 200 film, 1/125th (?) sec exposure. Click for the larger versions.
Venus at about 3PM on the afternoon of May 22, 2004. Venus is on its way toward the June 8th transit of the Sun. The weather here has been poor for viewing Venus in the evenings, so I thought I would give it a try in the afternoon. After setting up on the Sun (using a solar filter) I moved the telescope into the shadows, removed the filter, and then offset to Venus (1h40m E, +6 deg N). It was pretty easy to find this way. Since Venus was nearly overhead the view was pretty good too... better than the wavy air and strong color smearing at low elevations in the West. This was taken with a 6" f/6 reflector, 12mm eyepiece, afocal projection, Kodak 400 HD film, 1/250th sec exposure.
A picture of the ISS as it passed nearly through the zenith on May 13th, 2004.
(Click for the full size image.)
It was a hazy evening, and I forgot until nearly the last minute so I was
pretty lucky to get set up in time. The ISS rose upward though Leo.
This was a roughly 1min exposure on ASA 400 film, with some photoshop
dereddening and darkening of the scanned print. I was inspired to try this
because I had read that the ISS was to pass in front of Jupiter for some
areas on the East Coast. I knew I was east of that occultation track, but
thought it might look interesting anyway. The ISS appeared farther west than
I had expected, but as you can see it almost eclipsed Regulus. I'm not sure
I would have noticed if it did because the ISS was probably brighter.
After passing overhead, the ISS set straight down through Draco
toward Vega on the NE horizon.
Here's an image of the Sun taken using new toys consisting of (a) a full-aperture solar filter, and (b) a bracket to hold the camera for afocal photography. The seeing was not great and the sunspots were not impressive, but still this picture turned out far better than I had expected it would. (Parameters might be something like: Dec. 27 2003, Kodak Gold 200 film, 1/125 sec exposure at f/8. A New Year's Resolution is to start recording this stuff better.)
Christmas Night 2003 there was a fair conjunction between the Moon and Venus. I think these are the best such pictures I've taken. I seemed to get better results out of the photos in the brighter twilight than later in darker skies. The linked page contains two large pictures.
This is a sequence of images from the total lunar eclipse of Nov. 8, 2003. The pictures are mostly 1/4 sec exposures taken every 10 minutes from 6:30 to 8:10 PM EST (200 ASA, 200mm telephoto lens, some editing of the contrast of the scanned prints). Clouds drifted by midway though the partial phase, and then thickened up entirely just after totality started. The exposures are good for the eclipsed portion of the Moon, a nice complement to my other sequence (below) which captures the uneclipsed portions.
Something different... (Mizar A+B, Saturn, Jupiter, Jupiter, and Mars). The Saturn and Jupiter images are from Jan. 15, 2003. In the first Jupiter image, Ganymede, Io, and Europa are faintly visible (left to right). About 30 minutes later in the second image, Europa has disappeared into Jupiter's shadow, and Io is about to start a transit across Jupiter's face. Mars was recorded much later (on Sept. 26, 2003) and is magnified by a factor of two compared to the others. The south polar cap and some real albedo features are visible. The shape and orientation of the features pins down the time of the picture to about 11 PM EST. Each of these images is created from a stack of a few dozen video frames collected with a Meade Electronic Eyepiece attached to a Meade ETX-105. The original recording was to video tape and then much later converted to digital video. Slight to moderate contrast adjustments were applied after the stacking, along with some unsharp masking for Jupiter and Saturn.
Two nights before Hurricane Isabel hit the area, this was the waning gibbous moon rising.
Mars appeared near the full harvest moon on September 10, 2003 at about 12:15 AM EDT. The Mars picture is not so good. The Moon picture turned out well enough. Click on the Moon for a larger scale picture.
The Moon and Mars one night from the backyard on September 6, 2003 (UT). These pictures don't look any better at a larger scale, so unlike the rest on this page they are not linked.
A mosaic of 3 images covers most of the crescent moon. (Sometime prior to November 2002.)
A second try at photographing sunspots. I had learned that my camera doesn't work well at its fastest shutter speed. Now I've learned that "seeing" is a definite problem at slower shutter speeds.
In the Spring of 2002 there has been a nice grouping of the five visible planets in the western evening sky. This picture was taken on April 25, 2002 at about 8:45 PM EST from my backyard in Bowie, MD. It shows four of the five planets. Jupiter is too far from the rest to fit in the picture. This turned out far better than I had expected! I was concentrating on keeping the planets in the field of view and airplanes and cars out. I hadn't thought that the Hyades and Pleiades would show up so nicely in twilight skies. I also had expected that the streetlights would be more of a problem. What surprised me most is the set of "Galilean moons" around Mars. They're really just stars in Taurus (distant members of the Hyades?), but they allow Mars to do a fair imitation of Jupiter as it might look in binoculars. Here is an annotated version that tells which planet is which.
This photo shows short star trails of the constellation Lyra. It's a cheat for this page
because it was taken about as far away from my backyard as I can get (figuratively).
The picture was taken at Rabbit Ears Pass in Colorado on August 12, 2001. Katherine & I
drove out of town (Steamboat Springs) looking for dark skies to watch for Perseid meteors.
We just pulled off the side of the road at the top of the pass. To take this picture, I
simply set the camera on its back on top of the car and left the shutter open a few minutes
(with plain old Kodak Gold 200 film in the camera). I wasn't even sure what I would be
pointing at, but figured with such beautifully dark skies, any place would look good.
This is the interesting part of the picture showing the bright stars of Lyra
(North is to the right).
The very bright star is Vega. The nice double star up and right from Vega is epsilon Lyrae.
The colors are real. The red stars are mostly cool red giant stars. The blue stars
are hot stars (mostly B stars). White stars, like Vega, are A type stars --
a bit warmer than the Sun. We saw many meteors, both Persieds and random strays, but
none apparently on film here.
(This picture is 1024x768 pixels so you may have to
use a program other than your browser to see the whole view at once.)
The crescent Moon and Venus on January 28, 2001.
Mercury in the murky twilight on January 28, 2001. Seeing Mercury can be tricky. So I'm sort of pleased that I have anything at all to show on film.
This is my view of the Christmas Day 2000 partial solar eclipse. It was very interesting to watch.
Sadly though, my pictures didn't turn out very well. Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Click right on the partially eclipsed Sun to see the only picture that almost worked.
This is a picture taken the evening of April 6, 2000. It's really a pretty neat picture. It shows the crescent Moon grouped with the planets Jupiter, Mars, and Saturn. The crescent portion of the Moon is overexposed, but the rest is clearly visible due to earthshine. The planets are the three bright objects to the right of the Moon (bottom to top as I listed them). The Pleiades star cluster is the tiny dipper-shaped group of stars at the top of the picture. I used my telescope to block the direct light from a streetlight, but the light still reflected pretty brightly off the side of the house and a tree in front. It was still twilight, so the sky gets brighter toward the horizon (you can even see a little bit of cloud by the trees). And finally, the reddish cast to the sky is not the normal red sky at sunset (note that the sky down low is blue). It turns out that there was an aurora that evening! We saw the deep red color. It looked much nicer in person. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that it was an aurora at the time. The thought did cross my mind, but I quickly decided it was just the red sunset reflecting off some of the thin clouds that were around. That, and maybe a dose of city light pollution too, even though the color really wasn't quite right. I was too focused on the planetary alignment. Still I'm pretty pleased that the picture seemed to catch it. (Though it's possible that the color is just due to bad processing, I think it really is the aurora. I've taken other pictures like this, but don't recall ever seeing the sky look this way in the final product.)
This is my first decent picture of Comet Hale-Bopp. I'll have to try again soon, as the comet now moves into the western sky. Longer exposures show more trailing to the stars and comet. Comet Hale-Bopp hasn't been kind enough to sit still at the celestial pole like Comet Hyakutake did.
The picture is a ~30 second exposure on ASA 400 film, taken from my backyard at about 4:30 am (EST) March 12, 1997.
These pictures were taken the evening of April 1, 1997 from a field along Wye Landing Lane on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The skies there were much darker than the skies in Bowie, but you can still easily see the glow of Baltimore and its suburbs. If you look very carefully at the picture on the right, you might see Tom Sodroski (who graciously provided transportation to the observing site in his sharp Saturn), his brother Joe, and Nils Odegard.
These pictures were exposures of ~30 sec on ASA1000 film, on a cold and windy night.
A few days before the next lunar eclipse (on September 27, 1996) I tried to
practice taking Moon pictures though my 6-inch reflecting telescope.
I wanted to see what sort
of scale I could get, and whether I could use short enough exposure times that
tracking the Moon was unnecessary. The results are OK if you don't try looking for
too much detail. I suspect the pictures are a little blurry because I simply messed up
the focus, but it could be bad seeing, or the lack of tracking that made the pictures
blur. (Click once for the big picture, and again to turn up the magnification.)
At the same time as the Moon was in eclipse, and Comet Hyakutake was shining in the north, I caught this picture of Venus on its way past the Pleiades star cluster. Venus was bright enough that it made the Pleiades difficult to see with the naked eye. In this picture, Venus is over exposed, but the Pleiades came out nicely.
This is the lunar eclipse of April 3, 1996. From the site of my backyard the Moon was rising between the trees, and through hazy eastern skies while totally eclipsed. The clouds hid the moon until it was at least 5 degrees above the horizon. The color looked sort of peachy to me, not like the coppery colors I seem to recall from most of the past eclipses I've seen. This picture is somewhat overexposed.
This is a wide field view of Comet Hyakutake. The tail stretches for about 15 degrees before it reaches the edge of the picture. The bright star at the lower left is Polaris, the North Star. The bright stars at the lower right mark the end of the bowl of the Little Dipper.
The picture is a ~1 minute exposure on ASA 1000 film, from the side of a backroad near Harwood, MD, at about 11:20 pm (EST) March 26, 1996.
This is a narrower field view of Comet Hyakutake. Zooming in reveals better detail in the head of the comet.
The picture is a ~1 minute exposure on ASA 1000 film, from the side of a backroad near Harwood, MD, at about 11:20 pm (EST) March 26, 1996.
This is a sequence (right to left) from the lunar eclipse of August 17, 1989. I had lost track
of the date, but checking past eclipses, this is the only one that would fit for the place
I recall taking these pictures in Rockville, MD. A long time after
I took these, I scanned the prints and merged them electronically. Not spectacular, but sort
of nice. It was a very dark eclipse as I recall.
Old, old, pictures from 1986 March 21, 4:30 AM CST. I only know the date and time because of the
location of Halley's Comet in the picture. The photos were taken in decent rural skies outside
of Urbana, IL. 17 years later, I've scanned them, stitched them, and adjusted the contrast
a little. The vignetting is still bad, but overall there's still a lot to see.
The Hyades and Pleiades star clusters. I've lost track of when this was taken. Scanning and
electronically adjusting the contrast has made some improvement in this picture.
Here's an old picture of Orion. Just held the shutter open on a tripod. The larger version
here lacks some of the detail of the original scan, but almost hides the fact that the star
trails are long enough to be noticed, but not long enough to be pretty.
Rick Arendt
January 20, 2008
