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Comet Lulin (C/2007 N3) was on its closest approach to Earth when member Joe Golias recorded this image. Date: 2/24/2009 - Time: 1:00 AM EST. Joe bundled up for a cold night at his Ohio dark-sky site and made this and other great images. Technical details -- Telescope: Takahashi Epsilon 180 ED flat field astrograph. Camera: Modified Canon 40 DH. Guiding: SBIG ST4. Mount: Losmandy G-11. Exposure: 3 x 180-second exposures at ISO 400 for a combined total of 9 minutes. Processed in Images Plus and Photoshop CS2. |
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Jupiter: At the November 2008 meeting of the CAA, Kevin Moore demonstrated how inexpensive astrophotography can be done with the Orion black & white "electronic eyepiece." The "eyepiece" is actually a CCA camera which was inserted into a trimag 3X Barlow also Orion and used with a Orion Starblast telescope. This is a still picture from the video taken with this equipment on August 8, 2008 at around 10 PM. There was a very clear sky which made image capture very easy to do from my backyard. -- Kevin S. Moore |
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This image of Jupiter was taken 8/3/2008 from my driveway. It is my best to date. Information: 8-inch Meade LX200 with an alt-azimuth mount using Meade's DSI-color CCD camera and a 2X Barlow giving a f/20 focal ratio. A total of 337 frames were aligned and stacked using Meade's Envisage software with Drizzle technology. Exposer time was 0.0625 seconds. Final processing was performed using Registax-4. -- Steve Spears |
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Venus Recovered: "This was a well-scripted, two-person shoot, as we were only one mistake away from the Sun." The shot was "carefully planned and executed to prevent damage to Dave, me or the scope. Setting up, we knew the solar angle was still small enough that the OTA and had to be sheided at all times, but without blocking Venus. Just moving the scope to center Venus would alter and could have added a dangerous amount of energy into the tube. Double checks and constant diligennce before we would look into the eyepeice or to photograph." Inset is an afocal image shot through the telescope eyepiece. Image by Jay Reynolds and David Taggart. |
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"This image was taken on the night of November 13 just before the clouds moved in.
Image data:
Comet Holmes/17P
Telescope: Astro Pysics 130 EDT F/8.3
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Camera: Canon 40DH modified
Exposure: Single 5-minute exposure
ISO: 800
Processing: Photoshop CS2
Location: Hinckley, Ohio
Sky conditions were fair at best. This is a first light image using my new Cannon 40DH, the camera is worth every dollar! SBIG WHO?"
-- Joe Golias
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"Mars taken November 13, 2007, from my driveway, at 11:45 pm. At the time, it was 64 million miles from Earth, 13.6 arc seconds in diameter, and had a magnitude of - 0.94. The final image was made from the best 70% of 243 images aligned and stacked. The exposure time was 0..33 sec. The equipment used was a Meade 8-inch LX200 telescope, with a f/20 focal ratio and a Meade DSI color camera. Reistax 4 was used for the final processing." -- Steve Spears |
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Comet 17PHolmes. This image is formed from the best 109 out of 256 frames which have been aligned and stacked, processed slightly using Registax 4. The images were taken October 31, 2007, from the Letha House observing site, using a Meade LX200, with a focal ratio of 6.3. The camera was a Meade DSI-C. -- Steve Spears |
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"Comet 17P/Holmes shocked astronomers on Oct. 24, 2007, with a spectacular eruption. In less than 24 hours, the 17th magnitude comet brightened by a factor of nearly a million, becoming a naked-eye object in the evening sky. I finally was feeling well enough to get out and shoot the comet the other night, although Ray and I have been observing it on and off since it brightened. Telescope: Vixen ED80Sf; Camera: Canon 350D; Mount: Bogen-Manfrotto; Exposure and time: ISO 400 2 X 15 sec." -- Lynn Paul |
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Comet 17P/Holmes as it appeared at 9:34 PM, October 28. Two stars shine through the coma like headlights through fog. The image was made using a Canon Digital Rebel XT camera attached to the 9-inch Cooley Telescope, a Warner and Swasey instrument at Stephens Memorial Observatory of Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio. Exposure: two seconds at ISO 1,600. -- James Guilford
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Saturn, by Steve Spears: "I took this last night, March 11 (2007). It is my best attempt to date. Seeing and transparency -were excellent. I used the folllowing: 8-inch LX200GPS with a Meade DSI-color camera and a 2X Barlow which gave a f/20 focal length. Sixty-seven images processed with Registax 4." Note the shadow of Saturn's planetary body falling across the rings in the upper-left of this image. The Cassini Division is also visible in the rings. |
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Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) - January 2007. Past president and avid astrophotographer Lynn Laux went some distance to secure a good vantage point. She writes she drove, "over to a hill north of Doylestown about 5:30. At about 5:33 we spotted Venus, then maybe a minute or so later I spotted the comet low and to the right of it. From our vantage point it was fairly high in the sky, and bright (but tiny). However the long tail was evident, as is a small split in the coma. I had my camera going ... I got off several shots, then shifted position as it was obvious the comet was moving. I got many more shots of the comet until it moved behind a low cloud bank and some smoke." |
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Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) - January 2007. Joe Golias writes of his photo: "I was able to view it from my street here in Hinckley. Threw the three kids in the car and drove about three-tenths of a mile (roughly four house lengths). Anyway, we spotted it around 5:30. I figured I had some time to show the kids the comet through my binoculars. So we viewed it for awhile. Then I realized how fast it was sinking into the horizon! No time to waste! Grab the camera & tripod! Set it up in the middle of the street! Don't get hit by my neighbor's passing car! Quick, take a shot! Wow! It's gone! I think we were back in the car by 5:45. I had only taken three shots. Oh well, it was fun.
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Jupiter with Euopa and Io. This is probably my best Jupiter EVER! Great night at Letha House: you could see the Milky Way from Cassiopiea through Sag. Other than all that dew (can you say, soaked?!), as good a night as at our {2005}Convention... Details: June 26, 2006. 10:41 - 11:01 PM EDT. Letha House. Meade 8" LX200 Classic. SAC IVc webcam. Jupiter image was stacked from 5 frames of five 60 second AVIs. Camera settings were 1/30sec at 10 fps for 60 seconds. Gain-10%; Brightness- 40%; Saturation-35%; Gamma-40%. Jupiter was superimposed on 1 frame of one 60 second avi purposely overexposed to capture the moons Europa and Io. K3CCD Tools was used to capture and process the AVI's. Images Plus was used to align and combine the 5 frames of Jupiter. Final processing was done in PhotoShop CS. -- Lynn Laux |
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Sunet with Mercury. Taken from Doylestown, Ohio June 14, 2006 at 10:19 PM EDT. Mercury popped into view once the Sun was about 6 degrees below the horizon. Usually it lies too close to the horizon to get a good shot, but ... Mercury {was} approaching its greatest elongation from the Sun. Camera: Canon EOS Digital XT on tripod, ISO 200, Aperture f/3.5, focal length 18 mm, Lens type 18 - 55 mm, 8 second exposure. -- Lynn Laux |
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Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann (Comet 73P - fragment) by Joe Golias. "I was out on May 7 {2006} for the close encounter with M-57. Too bad my garage roof was in the way! Anyway, I was able to grab a few shots through a 10-inch Newtonian... AstroZap 10" F/4.5 Newtonian (First Light)" Technical stuff -- CCD camera: SBIG ST2000XM, a single 2-minute exposure from Hinckley, Ohio. Click here for a short movie made up of 10 1-minute exposures. |
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Comet Pojmanksi (C/2006 A1) was an unexpected treat for Northern Hemisphere observers. On Sunday March 5, 2006, I got up at 4:30 AM to view and ultimately image the comet. Using Altair as the starting point, I finally located Pojmanksi in the 25mm eyepiece of my Orion ED 80. I used a Canon Digital Rebel XT mounted piggyback on the refractor to acquire some wide field shots (50mm, f/2.8, ISO 400). I could only shoot 25-second frames at a time, as the telescope, though polar aligned, only has a RA drive. My image represents 10 frames @ 25 secs. converted, translated, rotated, aligned and combined using ImagesPlus. Levels and curves done in PS-CS. Light pollution gradient removal done with Astronomy Tools. -- Lynn Laux |
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This mosaic represents images of Mars taken from my backyard in Strongsville, Ohio using my SAC IVc camera and Televue 2.5X PowerMate at Prime focus of a Meade 8" LX200 Classic. Each image was captured, stacked, and processed from the best 50% frames utilizing K3CCD Tools 2. Unsharp masking was applied in Photoshop cs. Mosaic created with Collage Creator. -- Lynn Laux (c) 2005 Northern Crown Astronomy |
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Two of my favorite planetary images...
Jupiter and Saturn images both taken with my Canon D60 from my backyard in Broadview Hts. Its not necessary to go to our dark site for planetary imaging because they're so bright and light pollution doesn't really affect the photo. Both images consist of approx. 50 separate files aligned, combined, and processed with ImagesPlus software.
Jupiter - I find it very interesting to point out to people that if you look at the planet from a sideways point of view (equator up & down), you'll notice that the planet is not round! There is a definite bulge at the equator. Due to the extreme speed of rotation of the planet. See for yourself. (see more below)
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Saturn - It is very difficult to obtain fine detail in planetary imaging due to atmospheric turbulence, etc. However it can be accomplished with patience. Notice the planet's shadow on the lower ring. When viewed through a large scope this feature has a beautiful 3-D effect, something I never get tired of looking at. -- Wayne Cukras, 2005 |
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"Neptune, the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System, is also the most distant of the giant gas planets. Ever since seeing amateur images of Neptune, and Triton, its largest moon, I had hoped to capture it as well.
Neptune appears as a light blue disk in the eyepiece. It is a mere 2.4" across at magnitude 7.8. I used a Meade DSI at prime focus on a Meade 8" LX200 Classic SCT. To capture Triton, I purposely overexposed the disk of Neptune, since the moon is about 13.5 in magnitude (see the insert). Images were all captured at Letha House on the night of August 2, 2005.
I really enjoy the challenge of imaging the remote planets, for despite their rather bland features, the delicate colors of both Uranus and Neptune are worth the effort." -- Lynn Laux
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"Tuesday, July 19 (2005) was such a beautiful night that I set up outside my apartment patio in Strongsville, Ohio. About 3:00 AM I began to look for Uranus as it was about halfway between the Moon and Mars. I used a SAC IV color camera with an Astronomik IR filter connected to a Televue 2.5X Powermate at prime focus of a Meade 8" LX200 Classic to image the gas giant. K3CCD Tools 2 was utilized to capture, process and convert the best 70% frames to 3 R, G, B FITS files; aligned the 3 frames with a Luminance frame and converted the result to a TIF file with Registax 3. I then used Paint Shop Pro 8 to unsharp mask, curve and convert to a JPEG. North is down and West is to the left." -- Lynn Laux |
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"It's my first astrophoto of another planet and I'm pretty happy with it. That's Jupiter (of course) with its four Galilean moons (left to right): Io, Europa, Callisto, Ganymede. In the lower right-hand corner of the picture is a star. The telescope is a Meade 390 (90mm) refractor. The imager is a Philips ToUcam. Separate exposures were made for the planet and its moons --frame grabs, no stacking-- at about 10:45 p.m., June 24, 2005, a night of average seeing from North Royalton, Ohio." -- James Guilford |
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"My best picture of Saturn, taken 4/09/05. I used a SAC IVc, connected to a 2.5X Televue Powermate at prime focus to a Meade 8" LX200 Classic. I captured 50 secs exposure at 15fps. This gave me approximately 751 frames. I then used Registax to align and stack the best 85% of frames. After optimization, I used wavelet processing to bring out the color and details. I did not have to do much tweaking of the image." -- Lynn Laux |
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Lynn Laux created this lunar and planetary mosaic from the following:
Moon Image taken with HP 312 held up to the EP of a C90.
Mars Image taken with a C4040Z at prime focus of a Meade 5" LXD55. (Portage Lakes State Park)
Jupiter Image taken with a SACIV at prime focus of a Celestron 6" on a LXD55. (Doylestown, OH)
Saturn Image taken with a Philips ToUCam at prime focus of a Meade 5" LXD55. (Spruce Knob, WVA)
Uranus Image taken with a SACIV at prime focus of a 8" Meade LX200 Classic. (Portage Lakes State Park)
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Mars Series: Lynn Laux recorded this series of Mars shots between July 17 and Aug. 5, 2003.
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