Astrophotography

[Protium]

I am not sure where to post these but nature seems appropriate. These are a few examples of some of the astophotography I have done.

Lunar:

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/8172/moonjw9.jpg

The straight Wall
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/4958/straightwallzo6.jpg

Planetary:

Saturn and moons
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5263/saturnof4.jpg

Jupiter and moons
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6886/jupiterapr282006lf6.jpg

Deep space:

The Orion nebula
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/8329/m422dk7.jpg

Solar:

Narrow bandwith Hydrogen alpha
http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/6628/halphakd3.jpg

White light
http://img93.imageshack.us/img93/1039/white1ac7.jpg

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/2329/white2eq1.jpg

[dancinec]

Wow, beautiful, I am impressed, how about a picture of your setup!

[Miyagi-san]

WOW, very nice. Especially saturn & moons...

So, if I get like a 1.4X teleconvertor could I take shots like this too?

Just kidding :D

Amazing work!

EDIT, I'm curious about your setup too...although I may be looking for a "dumbed-down" version, being a bit new a lot of this. How are you able to achieve snaps like this? crazy expensive gear? Can you recommend any good websites for it? (I could google it of course, but it's better to get references from an actual person vs a search engine) :)

Thanks

-Andy

[R Hardman]

Very nice work!

[drparker]

Yes, these are great! What telescope are using?

[Protium]

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/5709/meun7.jpg
Not the greatest photo but that is me standing next to my main scope. a 10" reflector on an EQ6 equatorial mount. When attached to my 300D in a prime focus configureation it is the same as using a f/4.7 1200mm lens.

I use it along with my 300D for most of my images. The two exceptions being planetary and h-alpha solar images. For the planetary images I actually use a webcam instead of my 300D and the h-alpha images of the sun require a seperate telescope made specifically for solar viewing. For the white light solar images I use my 10" scope plus a full apature Baader solar filter.

Andy astrophotography gear can be extremely exspensive, to the point that some of it makes Canon L-series glass seem cheap in comparison but it is possible to get started without spending too much. I would recommend doing a lot of research before you buy anything.

The big considerations will be your budget and the types of images you plan on taking. You also have to take into consideration portability. If you live in the middle of a large city and you want to image faint galaxies you will have to transport your gear to a remote location. If this is the case you will probably want something more compact then what I have.

Then there is setup time to consider. My 10" takes about 30 mins to setup in my backyard, then at least another 30 mins to cool down to the ambient temperature. Then add another hour to dissassemble it and store it away when I am finished. Compare that to my small 40mm solar scope wich I can have outside and ready to go in about 2 minutes and packed away just as quickly.

the forums on http://www.cloudynights.com/ are by far the best on the web for anything to do with amature astronomy there are plenty of very knowledgeable people there that will be happy to help you find the right setup.

[srn_photo]

Damnit. Now i wanna do this. Uhggggg. Pics are incredible man.

[Miyagi-san]

Incredible....NICE setup...

sounds like fun, thanks for the inspiration....see you over at cloudynights I'm headed that way now to sign up :D

please share some more! :)

-Andy

[SgWRX]

i love your m-42 picture! i can't believe that came from a 300d. i have an 8" reflector and no i'm starting to "think" lol.

here here on your comments about optical instruments for astronomy costing the big bucks! and how about resolution, like a televue 102 with 163 line pairs per mm compared to the best canon L glass.

i recall observing saturn through a 6" astrophysics telescope with a friend of mine and commenting that it was better than _any_ picture i've ever seen. geez, when you start to pour on the power high-res helps!

do you have any shots of m-57?

[verty]

woah great shots
something im getting interested in
but like wouldnt have the means...

[urbandancer]

i love the nebula one man. Its amazing

[Miniflash]

Awesome ~

[ZekaG]

Some great shots. Thanks for sharing.

[Rhinotherunt]

IMPRESSIVE! I have always enjoyed looking at these type of images...

[cigarviper]

LOL, that is a typical photo any astronomer would offer of himself.:D

Very nice photos. Expensive set up indeed.

Hey, my first post!:cool:

[Protium]

Thanks for the comments everyone,

SgWRX, I am very certain the only way I will ever own the astronomy gear I would like to have would be to win the lottery lol, but if I ever do become independently wealthy I think one of my first purchases would be a <0.2 anstrom H-alpha filtered Astro-Physics APO refractor *stops to wipe drool from keyboard*

I don't have any shots of the ring nebula but how about a moddest attempt at M51
and a shot of Orion. I normally image under moderetly light polluted skys so I tend to focus more on objects in our solar system or the larger and brighter DSOs.

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/2361/whirl3oj2.jpg

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6531/orion2vy1.jpg

I just aquired a televue 5X powermate that I havn't really had a chance to use yet and I will probably try my hand at some more DSOs this winter so I will post some more when I get some new shots.

[Steevo]

Protium, great stuff. I like them all.

What lense did you use for the widefield Orion shot?

That solar photo is excellent! I did'nt know detail like that was visible in a PST. Or Is it not "visible" at the eyepiece and only shows up on the CCD? Is it a stock PST or have you added filters? They seem like a great value at $500, even more so when compared to the price of a larger aperture H-Alpha scope.

Hope I'm not being too annoying with all the questions.

Steve

[SgWRX]

awesome! hey, is that an NGC galaxy to the right of M51 near the edge of the frame? how long are your exposures?

[Protium]

Thanks Steve, I don't mind anwsering questions at all,
I used a Canon f/1.8 50mm for the Orion shot and I used an unstacked PST for the Halpha image. Quite a bit of detail is visible at the eye piece but you have to keep in mind that the it is PURE red with MUCH lower contrast. I use a few different pieces of software to enhance my PST images, including MaxImDL for deconvolution, PIxInsight for wavelet processing and photoshop for Color and contrast adjustment. So while all the detail is definatly visible it is subtle and can take some time to fully take in.

You can't go wrong with a PST for the price but keep in mind they are not designed with imaging in mind. They have very limited back focus, so an SLR won't come to focus without some modification to the PST or something in between to move the focal point.

Thanks SgWRX, Yes it is definatly a galaxy. I am fairly sure it is NGC 5169.
All my shots are unguided so I keep my exposures short and stack multiple images to bring out the faint detail. The M42 and M51 images are a combination of about 9 or 10 40sec images each and I believe the Orion photo was around a 2 minute exposure with my 300D piggybacking on my scope.

[tiefelj]

IMHO, the moon shot looks simple, but I think it's the hardest to do well. I know, I tried when I had my Questar. The H-alpha shots are great.

Well done. As always--the Heavens declare!


Jake

[SgWRX]

Thanks SgWRX, Yes it is definatly a galaxy. I am fairly sure it is NGC 5169.
All my shots are unguided so I keep my exposures short and stack multiple images to bring out the faint detail. The M42 and M51 images are a combination of about 9 or 10 40sec images each and I believe the Orion photo was around a 2 minute exposure with my 300D piggybacking on my scope.

oh ok. wow it really turned out well.

[calicokat]

Very nice photos, i am drawn to the saturn shot

[drdragon666]

i dont really know what to say ,,,,nice photos

ive just bought a ext90 meade lol and now thinking that i souldnt post any shots i get lol

keep up the good work,,look forward to seeing some more

[Protium]

i dont really know what to say ,,,,nice photos

ive just bought a ext90 meade lol and now thinking that i souldnt post any shots i get lol



Believe me, there are MUCH better amature images out there then mine but I don't let that stop me from posting. I would like to see what you can sqeeze out of it, probably some good lunar shots :)

Thanks again guys.

[Packhorse-4]

Amazing pictures! The first moon picture is my favorite. Thanks for sharing.