My Attempt at Astrophotography
Click on any thumbnail for a closer peek
About these photos
Most of the photos you see were shot using a Nikon F2 through an 8" Meade LX-50 Schmidt Cassegrain, and were manually guided (I could never get the 201XT or the ST-4 autoguider working right with the LX-50). In July 2001, I purchased a 10" Meade LX-200 SCT, which is MUCH more capable of deep space astrophotography, as well as being a bit larger. I took a really long break from astrophotography, and when I got back into it, DSLR photography had become affordable. I will never look back. There are so many reasons I switched to digital, and you can read about them in the page. R.I.P. film astrophotography.
Some of these shots look bad when viewing up close. This is because my scanner was on its way to the garbage heap when I scanned them. The originals do not have scratches, squiggles, marks, excessive dots, or bright patches and streaks.
Enough with the excuses.. Here are the pics.
Lunar Photos
1) Full moon, f/10 prime focus, 8" LX-50
2) Gibbous moon, f/10 prime focus, 8" LX-50
3) Crescent moon, f/10 prime focus, 8" LX-50
4) Crescent moon, f/6.3, 8" LX-50 overexposed for 14 seconds to achieve earthshine effect
1) Full Moon, f/6.3 (reduced with GEG), 1/1000sec, Kodak PJ-400 film, 10" LX-200
2) Close-up of moon, eyepiece projection using 10mm Orthoscopic eyepiece, 1/2 sec, PJ400 film, 10" LX-200
3) Lunar Eclipse, January 2000 using Kodak PF400 film, lunar filter, 8" LX-50
4&5) Indexes of two rolls of film shot during the peak of the Lunar Eclipse, January 2000.
1) Crescent moon shot at horizon, causing the orange effect. 6 second exposure, 8" LX-50
2) Half moon shot in daylight (approx 6:00pm in June) f/10 prime focus, 8" LX-50
3) Moon, eyepiece projection using 10mm orthoscopic eyepiece, 8" LX-50
4) Moon, eyepiece projection using 7mm ortho EP, 8" LX-50
1) Fun with color filters!
2) Hey, is that the Moon or Mars?
The Planets
1) Jupiter, eyepiece projection, 10mm ortho ep, ~5 sec on fuji 400, 10" LX-200
2) Jupiter, eyepiece projection, 7mm ortho ep, ~2 sec on fuji 400, 10" LX-200
2) Saturn, eyepiece projection, 10mm ortho ep, ~2 sec on PJ400, 10" LX-200
1) Jupiter overexposed to see 4 moons, 8" LX-50
2) Jupiter, Eyepiece projection, 10mm Ortho thru Tele-extender ~2seconds on 400 film, 8" LX-50
3) Saturn, 7mm Eyepiece projection, 1 second on PMZ1000 film, 8" LX-50
4) Saturn, 7mm Eyepiece projection, 2 second on PMZ1000 film, 8" LX-50
Deep Space
1) Orion nebula through Orion broadband deepsky filter, 20 minutes, manual guided, f/6.3, 8" LX-50
2) unfilted, f/10 ~12 minutes f/10, 8" LX-50
3) unfiltered f/6.3, 30 minute exposure, 8" LX-50, attempting to capture "running dude" nebula. You can see a little of him, but mostly unsuccessful due to sky fog limits
4) 300mm piggyback, 15 minutes @ f/4.5
5) 28mm piggyback, 5 minutes @ f/2.8
1) Andromeda galaxy, ~15minutes, 800 film, 300mm piggyback, f/4.5
2) Ring nebula, ~15 minutes, 800 film, prime focus f/10, 8" LX-50
3) Ring nebula, through 8" LX-50, exposure and film not recorded.
4) Dumbbell nebula, 15 minutes, Kodak PMZ-1000, f/10, 8" LX-50
5) Lagoon nebula, 15 minutes, Kodak PMZ-1000, f/10 with deep sky broadband filter, 8" LX-50
6) North American Nebula, Konica 3200 film, f/4.5 300mm telephoto nikkor lens piggyback on LX-50
7) Hercules Globular Cluster, Fuji Supra 400 film, f/6.3 (reduced with GEG), ST-4 guided, ~30 minutes, 10" LX-200
Other Astrophotos
1) Star Trails, piggyback on 8" LX-50
2) Star Trails, piggyback on 8" LX-50 (two airplanes flew through the photo)
3) Leonids Meteor Shower, Orion Region, December 2001, piggyback on 10" LX-200
4) Leonids Meteor Shower, December 2001, piggyback on 10" LX-200
5) Leonids Meteor Shower, December 2001, piggyback on 10" LX-200
6) Sun, Prime focus, solar filter through 8" LX-50
Oops and Stuff
1) This is what happens when you use a short focal lens on a camera mount attached to the back of the scope. 28mm f/2.8 cygnus/North America nebula region
2) Hercules cluster, prime focus using a generic crosshair reticle that wasn't illuminated, thus the poor tracking.
3) Star trail shot, airplane decided to be part of the shot. This one was shot through an old Miranda SLR camera.