Digital Camera Astrophotography
 Information and Gallery
  Unless otherwise stated all of these images were taken from the center of a medium sized city (pop. 1.6mil)
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LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Pentax 40 XL
Nikon 995

(5) 15s ISO400

 

The Wild Duck Cluster or M11
LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Pentax 40 XL
Nikon 995

M15 - Globular Cluster

LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Scopetronix 14mm DCE
Nikon 995

Venus

LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Pentax 40 XL
Nikon 995

Dark Skies

The Lagoon Nebula or M8 is 5000 light years distant in the constellation Sagittarius. The open cluster NGC 6530 can be seen to east or right of the bright portion of the nebula. This image is mostly red because it is a detail of the nebula that actually stretches 1.5 degrees or one and a half times the size of the full moon and this equates to 140 light years across.
07/07/2002
LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Pentax 40 XL
Nikon 995

The Dumbbell Nebula or M27 is a planetary nebula, or a star that has ejected of a significant part of it's mass in an expanding shell. This planetary nebula in the constellation Vulpecula was the first to be discovered.
07/05/2002

LX200GPS 25.4cm SCT
Pentax 40 XL
Nikon 995

Albireo or b Cyg is a famous colorful double star 400 light years distant in the constellation Cygnus and this new image shows my progress as last year I also imaged this pair.(shown right)
06/28/2002
Orion ST80
80f5 Refractor
Nikon 995
Scopetronix 18mm digital camera eyepiece

The Coathanger or Brocchi's Cluster, and also known as Collinder 399, may not be a cluster at all but possibly only an astrerism or association of stars in in the constellation Vulpecula.
06/29/2002

Nikon 995 w/Wide Angle Lens


Dark Skies

On May 4th 2002, 5 of the 9 plantets lined up for this unusual conjunction. Top left is Jupiter, the triangle is formed by Saturn, Mars, and Venus (brightest) with Mercury about to set below the barn. more like this>

 

Celestron C14

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm

Dark Skies

The Whirlpool Galaxy is approximately 30 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is colliding with its neighbor and better photographs show the galactic material appearing to pull from one to the other. This image is the result of stacking 10 images aquired using my friend's C14 SC Telescope.

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm

M13 or "The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules" is 25,100 light years distant and contains several hundred thousand stars. It was discovered in 1714 by Edmond Halley but imaged on April 27, 2002 by stacking four 35 second exposures.
This was the first image acquired using "the force" my new camera control software.

M5 (NGC 5904)
This spring favorite cluster is 25,000 light years distant in the constellation Serpens and contains several variable stars.
May 22, 2002 - 4 images stacked
M3 (NGC 5272)
This globular cluster containing 500,000 stars is located 40,000 lightyears away or further than the center of the galaxy.
April 11, 2002 - 4 images stacked
M82 - The Cigar Galaxy
NGC 2392 - The Eskimo Nebula
01/21/01 The Great Orion Nebula (M42)

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm

5 Black and White frames stacked + 5 Color frames stacked
all 16s ISO800
  The Great Orion Nebula is the main part of a giant cloud of gas and dust that spans hundreds of light years. This nebula has been shown to be a birthplace of new stars and most of the stars in the photograph are relatively young stars.
11/18/01 Leonids Meteor Shower

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

Here are a few more leonids photos
Leonids
Leonids3

The Leonids 2001 meteor shower was an unusually terrific show with many observers reporting more than one thousand per hour during its peek at 5:30am EST on November 18th. This shot was one of three captured in 127 attempts.
2001-2002 Saturn Jupiter

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm

 


34 frames stacked
11/21/2001


16 frames stacked
02/11/2002


49 frames stacked more
12/18/2001


Io Transit, 41 frames stacked
02/11/2002

  Double Stars

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

Gamma Andromeda
    

Eta Cassiopeia
More Like These>
  The Moon

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera
5 1/125 second exposures at ISO100.

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm


Moon Zoom

09/03/01

The animation above shows the full moon as captured in each step of the Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera's optic zoom. When at the most telephoto zoom position we are able to see very clearly the crater Copernicus which is 93 kilometers in diameter.


The Alpine Valley

03/10/01

This picture was shot using a Kodak DC290 held up to the eyepiece and was one of my first Astrophotography experiences.

 

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

Earthshine with Saturn

04/16/2002

When the Sun's ight is refected back on the moon from the earth it is called earthshine. During this period of earthshine Saturn was very close to the moon.
LX200GPS
254mm SCT
Nikon 995
Scopetronix 14mm WA digital camera eyepiece

CLAVIUS

05/21/2002

This high resolution image of the crater was taken using the William Optics digital camera eyepiece with a Meade #140 2x Barlow. The seeing was 5/10 and this image was selected from a group of fifty images.

PTOLEMAEUS, ALPHONSUS, ARZACHEL

06/18/2002

Unsuccessfully attempted to capture a majority of the 60 or so craterlets in Ptolemaeus.

Seeing: poor

THEOPHILUS, CYRILLUS, CATHARINA

06/16/2002

Details in the upper subcrater of Catherina are visible but the image was somewhat underexposed.
  The Sun

LX90 203mm SC Telescope

Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera
one 1/125 second exposure at ISO100.

William Optics Digital Camera Eyepiece 28mm

Baader Solar Film Filter

This image captures the two sunspot regions 9641 and 9645. The sunspots are the dark spots in the image while the Faculae are the lighter spots. 10/07/01

More like this>

Visit my friend, Markus, who introduced me to solar observing.
  Equipment

Meade LX200GPS
254mm (10") Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope with UHTC coatings.

LX200GPS Group

Most of the images on this page were taken with my previous telescope:

Meade LX90
203mm (8") Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope


Nikon Coolpix 995 Digital Camera

William Optics 28mm DCE

Visit:
The Laptop Video and Control page

Shown above is a normal observing/Astrophotography session setup. The Meade LX200GPS SC Telescope, the used and slow Hitachi Notebook, for controlling the camera and/or telescope and various,ever-growing, list of accessories. For details on the laptop setup visit the Laptop Video and Control page.

 
  Software

Astronomy and Astrophotography Software of my own design:

TheForce - Nikon Coolpix Remote Shutter Software
Control your MC-EU1 remote compatible camera with your laptop windows computer. Windows Beta

Hocus Focus - Laptop Video Focus Software
Display full screen laptop video from your digital camera's video output. Windows Beta

SNapp - Digital Camera Image Processing Software
Digital Camera Specific Stacking, Processing and Session Management Software. Windows Alpha

 
  Articles

My Astronomy and Astrophotography Articles, Tutorials, and Reviews:

The Getting Started Guide to Digital Camera Astrophotography

ISO: Its not just for Film

AstroStack: First Light

Splitting Doubles with your Digital Camera

Wide Field Digital Camera Astrophotography

The New Scopetronix Digital Camera Eyepieces

A Hartmann Mask

Tell me what you think gregory@incessant.com

To learn more about this exciting endeavor join the Digital Camera Astrophotography List by visiting digital_astro or sending an email to:
digital_astro-subscribe@yahoogroups.com .

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