The Planets and Moon

Below are a selection of Starlight Xpress MX5 CCD images taken through my 8inch f/5.6 GX200 reflecting telescope.

from ORION OPTICS http://www.orionoptics.co.uk/

The Planets and Moon

jupe.jpg This image of Jupiter was taken on Sunday Sept 20. The image was taken using a "12.5mm series 4000 super plossl" and the GX200 .

jupiter.jpg This image was taken later the same night and shows nearly all the major cloud belts as well as the Great Red Spot. You can also see one of the planets satellites which is just visible to the left of the picture.

jupit.jpg This image of Jupiter was taken a few minutes later. Again I had to use my 12.5mm plossl otherwise the image size would have been rather small.

saturn.jpg Saturn 22:05hrs:ut September 20. This picture of Saturn was taken through a series 4000 12.5mm plossl eyepiece.

moon1.jpg Taken at prime focus of my 8" f/5.6 Newtonian

moon2.jpg Prime focus image of the moons eastern limb.

moon3.jpg Mare Imbrium.

copern.jpg Prime focus close up of copernicus.

plato.jpg Prime focus image of the mare imbrium inc crater Plato and the alpine valley

Deep Sky

m42.jpg A single 5min exposure through a 135mm lens.

m45.jpg 10min exposure through a 135mm lens.

m44.jpg 2x5min taken through a 50mm f/2.8 lens.

m82.jpg This is a prime focus image of M82. it is from a series of 10x90seconds.

m92_1.jpg This image was taken at prime focus. It is a series of 5*40sec unguided exposures.

ngc884.jpg 5min exposure through a 135mm lens.

m27.jpg 2 Min exposure prime focus. For this image I used a home made focal reducer which has reduced the focal length of the GX200 from f/5.6 to f/3.0.

Astrophotography

These pictures are taken from my observing site at Gradbach nr Leek Staffs.

haleb.jpg 135mm lens set at f/2.8 and Kodak Elite 2 color slide film, the exposure was about 5 minutes.

ngc7000.jpg "The North America Nebula". I took this picture from my observing site up in the Peak District, at the time the "NAN" was nearly overhead so I had an excellent view. I used a new film from Kodak "Kodak Ektacolor Pro Gold 400asa" with an Olympus 135 telephoto lens, the exposure time was 6 minutes.

ic1318.jpg nebulosity surrounding Gamma Cygni. 6 min exposure.

ngc869.jpg The Double Cluster in Perseus. 135mm Olympus lens 6 min exposure.

eclipse99.jpg We had a 90.1% partial eclipse here in Macclesfield, and these image's show the moons progress across the sun. This series of pictures was taken at 15minute intervals through a 250mm F/4.5 telephoto lens and 3x tele converter, they were taken through mylar and I used 100asa fuji film.
Astrophotography Part 2
Below are a series of photographs taken through my Televue Ranger (70 mm f/6.8) and Olympus OM1 camera and telephoto lenses which include my Olympus 135 mm f/3.5 and Soligor 250 mm f/4.5 lenses.
For guiding my photographs I am using a 60 mm (f/700mm) Refractor together with my Vixen GA-4 guider or if I am using a telephoto lens I can use the Ranger. All these pictures are manually guided using my SS2K-PC and GA-4.
click to enlarge
image date: 17/10/03
This is a wide field image of Sagitta and Vulpecula. M27 is just visible above center as a red dot. It is a 15 minute exposure taken through my Olympus 135 mm telephoto lens. The image was manually guided using the GA-4 and 24-8 mm Vixen LV zoom ep attached to my 70mm F/6.8 Televue Ranger. The exposure is not perfect but it demonstrates that with a little care I can manually guide my Vixen DX mount.

More CCD Images

All the images here were taken during a brief clear spell on Thursday16th September 1999. They were all taken through 28mm f/4.0 wide angle super paragon camera lens.

The images are all five minute exposures and they were taken between 20:00hrs ut and 21:30hrs ut. The faintest stars visible are about mag15..

ngc-7000.jpg

Ic-1318.jpg

m31.jpg

ngc70001a.jpg Here is another image of ngc7000 but this time I have added the positive and a negative image together using Paint Shop Pro I then increased the gamma and contrast to give a boost to the nebulosity. I think you will find a vast improvement in both detail and contrast, tell me what you think.

November 18th 1999

The SUN with SUN SPOTS

Here are a couple of new images taken by a friend using a Sony digital camera. They were taken on Thursday November 18th between 11:00 and 12:00. The images are of the sun and my Konus 120 mm (4.75" f/8.0 Refractor). The larger spot group is active region 8765, and it is thought likely it will produce a major flare soon.

sun1.jpg

konusuper.jpg

The Moon

Here are a couple of shots of the moon .These were also taken through theGX200t last night November 19th between 16:30 and 17:45 ut.

marefrig.jpg

tycho.jpg

ATIK 2-HS CCD Images

here you can brows through a selection of CCD deep sky images.

All these images have been taken from my suburban back garden here in Macclesfield. Here on a typical night I can see stars down to m+4.

I use various telescopes to image through. And at present I am using my 14 year old 8 inch. Which, has recently had it's mirror re-figured to 1/8th wave.

This fine image of the Crab nebula. Was my first guided CCD image taken on 14th January 2007 with the 8" SPX attached to a G11. The image was guided using a simple un-modified ToUcam Pro 840 attached to a TeleVue Ranger. The mount was being controled by Guide Master auto guiding software.

The image was taken through a Baader UHC-S filter.

click to enlarge