Adventures in Astrophotography, DeepSpace And A Astronomy Link List
Orion 120mm f/5.0
16 July 2008, admin @ 11:59 am

A scoping buddy let me borrow his Orion 120mm f/5.0!
I have sort of been wanting one of these scopes to use for astrophotography!
Last night I got my chance.
The Moon was at 89% and viewing was not that good.
I am more then surprised at how nice the picture came out!

Here is M13 The Hercules Globular Cluster
This is 10 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Orion 120mm f/5.0
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

The only trouble I had was I could not use the 2 inch diagonal but had to use a 1 1/4 inch….. And that was not a big deal at all!

Over all Orion 120mm f/5.0 is a joy to use for both astrophotography and visual.
This scope is going on my wish list……


M20 Trifid Nebula
8 July 2008, admin @ 8:14 am

This is M20 the Trifid Nebula in Sagittarius

This is 11 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition
processed with PhotoShop 6

This what one of the subs look like.


M57 The Ring Nebula
1 July 2008, admin @ 10:57 am

M57 The Ring Nebula is one of my favorite deep sky object.
It BRIGHT for a planetary nebulae and its very easy to find!
I can see it in my little Celestron StarSeeker 80mm.
I was out in the HUT till the wee hours this morning and M57
cleared the trees so I had the chance to take this!

This is 1 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Meade DSI-C
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition (it comes with the SS II)
processed with PhoteShop 6

Finding M57 is pretty easy.
Find the constellation Lyra,
look for the diamond-shaped set of 4 stars just below Vega.
M57 is in between the bottom pair stars.

Here is a PDF star chat of Lyra


Moon 25 Jun
25 June 2008, admin @ 8:19 am

I got up a bit early this morning to go out to the Astro Hut.
This is 3 subs @ 15 sec
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Orion StarShoot II
Mount CG5GT unguided
Stacked with MaxIm DL Essentials Edition (it comes with the SS II)
processed with PhoteShop 6

The Moon is waning gibbous


M14 Ophiuchus
24 June 2008, admin @ 8:30 am

Last night was so clear I decided to go and play in the Astro Hut (backyard observatory)
I managed to get a nice shot of M14

This is 14 subs @ 15 sec
unguided
Scope Starblast 4.5 imaging
Camera Meade DSIC CCD
Mount CG5GT

Here is a PDF Star Chart for M14


M13
6 June 2008, admin @ 6:28 am


M13 The Great Globular
Cluster in Hercules

This is 1 15 second sub.

We had a bad storm come through yesterday.
I did not think I would get any scope time….
But I looked out around 10:30 and we had clear sky’s.
So out the the BackYard Observatory I went.

M13 is one of my favorite objects to observe.
From a dark site and a clear night you can naked eye see it
and its a wonderful binocular target!


M5 Globular Cluster
6 June 2008, admin @ 6:10 am


Last night I also managed to to get a couple of subs of M5


StarBlast 4.5 Imaging
4 June 2008, admin @ 9:49 am



This is my latest telescope.
I have been having a ball with it!
Here is my first DEEPSKY picture taken with it
This is M5 its a globular cluster in the constellation Serpens.

15 subs at 15 sec each.
Stacked with Registax 3


Jupiter
12 July 2007, Russ @ 10:25 am

My first try with the new camera
Its not the best I have seen but its mine!
I used my 10″ DOB with no tracking.

Viewing was bad I had to play hide and seek with the clouds