Recent Astrophotography

[pursuer]

here are a few of my best images from the last couple of weeks, thanks for looking

Our nearest nieghbor, the moon (384,400km away)

The lunar Alps and Alpine valley accompanied by the crator Plato

The crator Clavius

A 1600km fault line known as the "straight wall" formation in Rupes Recta

High Res version:
http://img327.imageshack.us/img327/6484/moon200603073lp.jpg

Just around the corner, the Sun (150 million km)

Some spectacular prominences from March first.

closeup from march third

The other side of town, Jupiter (718,080,000km away)
I had to set the alarm and get up at 4:30AM for this one.

 

[Alexandra]

these are just amazing... incredible job!!!
thet third on of the sun is... wow.

 

[Rahb]

Grat captures. Clear and crisp. most astrophotography I see look off focus. Great job. What filter did you use for the shots of the sun? What equipement do you use (telescope wise?)

 

[Arch]

these are great man, love looking at these shots, could spend ages looking at number 5, just awsome series :thumbup:

 

[pursuer]

Thanks guys, Robert I should have posted this to begin with but I got lazy.

For the Lunar shots I used a 10" reflecting telescope and a canon 300D. All were taken with a technique called eyepiece projection using a tele vue 11mm Plossl eye piece, with the exception of the full disk shot for which the 300D was attached to the scope at prime focus.

The solar shots were taken with a Coronado PST, a dedicated 40mm h-alpha telescope and a 300D also via eye piece projection.

The shot of Jupiter was taken with my 10" scope and a philips ToUcam II pro webcam. It is the result of 300 stacked frames of video.

 

[pursuer]

Thanks Archangel

 

[Rahb]

and silly me,trying to hook my canon rebel xs up to a Meade ETX80 and taking some shots (well WANT to try). They would look like crap compared to your shots. bravo.

 

[omeletteman]

That full shot of half the moon is incredible, you really have a knack for this astro thing, keep it up.

 

[pursuer]

Thanks omeletteman

Robert, if you attach your rebel to your ETX 80 along with a 2X barlow or powermate it would be like using an 800mm lens, I bet you could get some great lunar shots.

 

[PlasticSpanner]

Absolutely awsome shots there! :thumbup:

How do you get the focus so close for the moon? I have an EOS 630 and am having difficulty getting a good focus without a split prism!

 

[woodsac]

Very cool series!
I also really like the third sun shot :thumbup:

 

[Raymond J Barlow]

amazing shots Pursuer.. We were coming home from Iowa last week, and saw what must be a planet in the sout east sky, very bright! Was that Mars?

I am pretty asrto dumb!

 

[pursuer]

Thanks guys,

Chris I use a Canon angle finder-C set to 2.5X magnification to focus. I take a burst of four shots, refocus and take four more, then refocus a last time and take four more. Later I just pick the sharpest out of the twelve to process. I also find it is essential to use mirror lockup for the high magnification shots. Even taking all that into consideration if the collmination of the scope is off or the atmoshere is too turbulent there is nothing that can be done to avoid getting images that look like mush.

Raymond, I doubt it was Mars, but you might have seen Venus if it was early in the morning. Venus is the brightest thing in the sky next to the Sun and the Moon and would be in the east before sunrise. If it was earlier in the evening I would be willing to bet you saw Sirius, which is the brightest star in the sky and is currently brighter then Saturn and Mars combined.

 

[Raindrops]

wow.

sorry if you click on your thread especially to read this reply but words fail me!

 

[Jimee]

So you can hook up your camera to a telescope? Does it have to be a special telescope, or will any (within reason) work? Great pictures by the way, I'm using the high rez moon shot as a background right now I love how you can see shadows in the craters on the moon