Astrophotos from December 28th, 2003




Here is an image of Saturn. It is a combination of 23 images at 1/4 second exposure with a Nikon Coolpix 995. It was taken using the afocal method with an 18mm eyepiece attached to the camera, and using full optical zoom (3x) an on Ultima C8. Estimated magnification is 333x.
You can see the Cassini division, a brown-orange equitorial belt, and the dark polar region. I particularly like the way the color came out on this image.



A prime focus shot of the moon though my Ultima C8. Exposure for about 1/125 seconds.




Image of the Orion nebula. My first prime focus attempt at this nebula. I did a rough polar alignment, then adjusted a little with the drift method. Because it wasn't perfectly aligned and I didn't do any guiding during the exposure, the image did drift a little bit, causing the stars to streak and the nebula to lose some detail.
The image was taken through my Ultima C8 for about 5-10 minutes. I also used Photoshop for unsharp mask.




A piggyback shot of the area around te constellation Orion. I used my Konica 35mm SLR, piggybacked to my C8, and left the shutter open for about 5-10 minutes.
You can easily see the M42 region in Orion's sword. You can also make out the Flame nebula and the nebula associated the Horsehead nebula next to Alnitak, the leftmost star in Orion's belt. Futher above and to the left, you may also be able to make out a part of Barnard's Loop, which circles around the left part of the constellation.
I'm pretty happy with the results of this shot, although the effects of light pollution make it very hard to rake any exposures longer than 10 minutes. I will probably go out and get a light pollution filter so I can take exposures for a little longer.



This is another piggyback shot of the area around the Pleiades in Taurus. Again this was taken with my Konica on my C8. Exposure was for 5-10 minutes.
This shot was ok, but you can see Aldebaran on the bottom left and that it is smeared quite a bit. I don't know if that was because the exposure was too long and my polar alignment was imperfect, or was there another problem. The dimmest stars in the middle are about 8th-9th magnitude.


Back to other Astro Images