Mars from 08/27/2003

This image of Mars was taken with a Pentax K1000 film camera . Some of you have probably never used film but when I bought my scope back in 97' I learned about alignment and observing and all I could about the night sky for 5 yrs before I started imaging with a scope . Actually I bought my first SLR film camera in 2001 . After a couple yrs practice then Mars became available to image but also it was one of the most popular times that Mars was at closest point to earth . The image below was a single frame and projects the exact size of Mars in my 25mm EP with a 2x barlow . Granite it's not the best but at least I captured it best I could on film . As I have mentioned if you have a chance to view anything in a scope please take full advantage of it cause using a camera with a lens even as big as a 600-800mm and looking through the viewer of the camera you will not experience the feel of seeing anything in Deep Space like you will in a telescope . Hope you enjoy this !

Sweet pic mate

Celestron wrote in post #17932467
Some of you have probably never used film but when I bought my scope back in 97' ...............Actuall​y I bought my first SLR film camera in 2001............... .

I did my first star pix with a Kodak Box Brownie wayyyyyyy back in around 1969 - 1970
First SLR camera, a Zenit EM, in around 1975 ( am showing my age hahaha )

Davenn wrote in post #17932486
Sweet pic mate

I did my first star pix with a Kodak Box Brownie wayyyyyyy back in around 1969 - 1970
First SLR camera, a Zenit EM, in around 1975 ( am showing my age hahaha )

Hey that's ok , can you beat 62 ?? I just got out of the army November 75' .

Celestron wrote in post #17932496
Hey that's ok , can you beat 62 ?? I just got out of the army November 75' .

hahaha ... na, I'm 57 this July

so how come it took so long to get a SLR ?
what were you taking photo's with before then ... instamatics ?


Dave

Davenn wrote in post #17932503
hahaha ... na, I'm 57 this July

so how come it took so long to get a SLR ?
what were you taking photo's with before then ... instamatics ?

Dave

HAHAHA ! Naw , I really never got interested as much as I did staring in 1995 . Me and the wife had visited the Ft.Davis state park back in 93' (first time camping there) . We went to the McDonalds Observatory for a star party with a group of friends . This was the first time I ever saw Saturn in a 16" SCT . That blew my mind ! it was so beautiful in all its' glory just sitting out there hanging in space . That 16" was something else ! Colors were very clear , rings were perfect and the Cassini rings were just out of this world ! My first real scope was a Bushnell SN-6 on a manual EQ mount . I spotted M3 for the very first time with that scope . It was AWESOME !

I really didn't know anything about imaging cause I was not a member of any forum so only pictures were in the Astronomy Magazine I subscribed to but I didn't have proper funds back then . Finally in 97' I decided I need a real scope and I ordered a Celestron C8 SCT on a German EQ mount with tracking motors . The view it gave me were over whelming cause back then LP was not a big factor in my backyard being in town . Now days LP has grown so much it's horrible where I live . Anyway I spent time getting to know the night sky and learning about astro software , constellations , where and how to find objects and eventually joined a forum in 2001 .

I remember seeing Hale-Bopp when it came through in 97' . Watched it every night in a pair of 10x50 binocs until it finally disappeared in the west . Had I known that I could have captured that with a camera and lens on a tripod I would have started back then but just seeing it with my own eyes was a miracle ! Beautiful comet ! What finally sparked me to buy a SLR was after watching the great meteorite shower in November 2001 , the Leonids Meter Shower . Got up about 3am and went out side and GOSH I never seen so many meteorites in my life and have never seen another shower like that since then . But that event finally pushed me to get a SLR . and the rest is history for me .

I never been very good , I never captured great images but I did my best with what I had both mental and financially . This is a very expensive hobby to get into . That's one reason I never got a Go-To mount even tho I always wanted one . I spent all my money on EPs' and adapters , electric focuser , piggy backs , bought another Stellarvue AT1010 the original TANK . I spent many many nights outside til the wee hours of the morning while the wife was comfortable inside in bed . And I still got in bed and up again at 6am every morning to go to work all day . I've seen planets , Sun , moon , nebulaes , star clusters (GC are my favorite) , galaxies . Have you ever used a high powered EP like a 10mm or a 7.5mm with a 2x barlow and split Pollux in Gimini ?? Did you know Pollux actually contains 3 stars ??

Anyway now I have got to a point physically I can't do that anymore . Oh I miss it but staying up all night I don't do very well any more . Plus back in 04' I had a heart attack so that hindered me somewhat for a while at lifting the scope and taking it out back , then taking it back inside after I was through for the night . I've seen the sun come up many times while watching a Meteor Shower . So this year I decided to retire from the imaging and observing . So now the scope sits in my computer room covered . Hopefully this long story explains it all . BUT I still enjoy seeing what others are producing and offering help and criticizing when I can . I make a few upset but when you have done it all , and see most all you get that way at times and have a hard time accepting the new ways such as images that look like daytime images with stars or the MW in the image . It's just me , can't help it .

CORE image and what a story.

You know Ron, I can listen the entire night if you talk...
You have a solid background that should be shared with all who are interested. May be its the right time to start writing a book about those nights and what inspired you all such as that first site of Saturn, and what followed, and all about your life!
No you won't make money but you will live something precious behind.
There is no other thing as interesting and fascinating as deep sky and all the questions that only grow more, the more you know.

Among the very few "Only" reasons for return of Film photography is astrophotography and this is a fact that not many have ever though about, let alone know about.

Most importantly, and I have ever said it, your presence to this or a likewise forum is really synergistic, if not priceless and hope to see a lot of you here, to through some sparks in the darkness of the matter.

Wish you good health.

Agree with Samsen

thankyou, Ron, for allowing some general chat in your thread
It's rare that we get to know other people on the forum in a more personal way

it's fun looking back on where we all started in astronomy and where we are these days ... using technology that wasn't even dreamed of way
back then digital (DSLR) cameras, Astro specific CCD imaging cams, ( I remember all the buzz of excitement when the first SBIG imager became available)
goto mounts with GPS etc

My first serious foray into deep space astro imaging was in the early 1980's when I met a guy who has an Edmond Scientific 8", f5 Newtonian
He and I would spend hours out under the stars taking turns at manually guiding with an off-axis guider for 30+ minute exposures of deep space objects
10 - 15 mins each
Dave and I experimented with all sorts of film types and one of the final best ones was a hypered Konica 3200ASA and we got a local photo processing
lab well trained in getting prints from our negatives. They got to know us and how we liked the processing done
Kodak 2415 was a favourite B&W film and was also pretty good after being hypered

back then ... no internet, no one to really share work with or ask for help ... you could the number of serious astrophotographers in New Zealand
on 1 - 2 hands (ie 10 or less) and many of us didn't even know one another personally.

with the lack of goto mounts, it was a must to learn how to star hop around the sky ... great education


OK on your health hassles, I can understand that well. You are probably a member of the "zipper Club" like myself ( some one who has undergone open heart surgery)
that was in 2012 and almost took me out of the race. It's only been over the last 12 months that I have recovered enough that I can lift and load my Celestron CPC925
into the car and head out to dark sites.

no, not on that .... didn't even know it was a multiple star system hahaha
But I did view the impact sites on Jupiter by the Comet Shoemaker-Levy fragments hours after each impact with my home made 8" f5 scope...
a major peak in my astronomy hobby and the naked eye super nova in the LMC (SN1987A)

Astronomy has been an awesome hobby for me spanning the last 50 years

Dave

That's pretty cool story and what a great shot! That was the date of Mars' closest approach not just for that year... but in about 60,000 years.

I observed it using my Meade ETX-125 telescope that year. I could just make out the pale spot marking the polar ice cap. As an added "benefit", we conveniently had the great Northeastern Blackout of 2003 so light pollution was _not_ a problem. The blackout occurred almost 2 weeks before you took this shot (Aug 14). Astronomers everywhere couldn't believe their good fortune to have no lights to worry about! (yeah sure... the food in the freezers spoiled... but it was totally WORTH IT!)

In those days I knew nothing at all about astrophotography. I had managed to connect my Canon AE-1 35mm SLR to the telescope to take a few (horribly vignetting) photographs of the moon. I have absolutely no idea what happened to those images (just that they were horribly vignetted.)