Lunar and planetary photography page
The best I've done with film are below. The first one was done with a 6" f10 reflector. The one on the right was taken with a 12" reflector. These telescopes had no motor drive. Photos were taken at prime focus.
These are my first digital lunar photos. Equipment: 4" F5 reflector, Philips SPC900NC web cam at prime focus. Video taken using K3CCD Tools, processed with RegiStax using default settings, then the top slider was moved to the right slightly and the image was saved.
My first attempt with a mosaic. As you can see, I have a long way to go with exposure.
I have an 11" Celestron telescope now. As you can see the focal length is much longer.
This is the result from 12-05-08. The first photo was on the top of the photo. It looks like the focus changed a bit before the third photo was taken. I was inside where it was warm while taking the photos thanks to Microsoft's "Remote Desktop".
My first photo of Jupiter
At least I can get the image on the chip even when using a 2X Barlow.
My first photo of Saturn - this is cropped from a 640 x 480 photo
Here are 3 photos of Saturn taken Christmas day, 2008. Still not good, but better than my first one. You can see the rings are nearly "edge on" now.
Here's a picture of comet Hale-Bopp taken several years ago on film with a 50 mm lens using a tripod. Notice the trail of the plane that passed over as the picture was taken.
One more of Saturn, taken with the Philips webcam. I'm gradually getting better.
First photo with my new camera setup. A Canon A550 using afocal method - camera with lens behind an eyepiece. 11" f6.3 ISO 200 camera zoomed in enough to eliminate vignetting. I hope I got the photo flipped around the right way.
My first attempt at something else - M42, the Orion Nebula. The exposure is way off, it's a single photo - no stacking, but here it is.
Man, that looks pretty bad, but hey, it's my first try. It looks like the camera was crooked.
I cut it down to 1/4 the actual size.
Two photos of Saturn from 3-1-09, taken with my Philips webcam at prime focus.
One more from 3-2-09
Here's my best photo of Jupiter so far, taken on July 24, 2009. That is Europa to the left of the planet.
Jupiter with my new camera, an OpticStar PL-131C. This photo is pretty good considering that Jupiter was low in the sky at the time - only about 30 degrees elevation. It's also evidently further away from Earth than it was in the photo above. I don't have an IR cut filter on the camera yet, either.
Here are a few of Mars with my new camera, the OpticStar PL-131C
And a test image of the Moon at full resolution with the OpticStar camera.
My latest with my new camera
A montage of the Moon 4 days before the Full Moon. I used a f6.3 reducer in my telescope. I took five photos, put them together and downsized it. Seeing conditions were very bad.
Another Saturn. I am gradually getting better.
Here are my latest results of Jupiter - taken this morning.
I'm interested in hearing your comments. Email me here.