The Orion nebulae

Last night was very clear. A good moment to capture the M42. This birthplace for stars can be found in the constelation of Orion. From my observatory, the nebulae bearly rises above the tree tops. So its a matter of good timing to get a good shot. In this picture I used 40 frames of 30 seconds each. The camera was set to ISO 1600. I used Deepskystacker to stack the frames, and used Photoshop and Nebulosity to finalse it.

NGC891

This is the large file of NGC 891. With the site messier45.com I was able to identify 14 objects on this photo. All of them are galaxies.

Expanding comet Holmes

This is a picture of comet Holmes, made on December 1st 2007. Since my last post the comet has grown in size considerlaby. For this picture I used 40 frames of 30 seconds on ISO 1600.

Erupting comet Holmes

Comet Holmes, normaly an object unvisible to the nacked eye, erupted this week. These photo's where taken today. The white center of the picture reveals the dust tail of the comet. The green halo is the gas tail. Because the sun is "behind" the observer, dust and gastail are in line. Thats why this comet lookes so odd. The picture with the halo consists of 100 frames 0f 30 seconds each on ISO 1600. The dust tail picture is made of 20 frames of 15 seconds each on ISO 800. It was hard to capture the core of the comet. It was easely overexposed! Eager to find the comet yourself?

Data for 30-10-2007:

Comet '17P' Magnitude= 2.9. Best seen from 17.7h - 6.8h. RA= 3h47m26 Dec=+50°29.0' (J2000) Distance to Sun= 2.46AU Distance to Earth= 1.62AU Elongation=139° hourly motion: dRA=-24.9"/h dDec= 6.5"/h.

Or see the finderchart.

More colour in the pictures

By using an additional technique I'm able to put more colour into the stars. This picture shows x and h persei, a double cluster in the constelation of Perseus. I took 50 frames of 30 seconds and stacked them in DeepSkyStacker.

Longer exposure

This is the first attempt to make a picture with longer exposure time. For this picture I used 60 frames of 30 seconds. A total exposure time of 30 minutes! These frames where stacked with deepskystacker. Photoshop was used to enhance the picture of M33. This galaxy is a member of the local group.

New photo enhancement techniques

After reading the techniques used bij Jerry Lodriguss I reprecessed mij picture of M8 - The Lagoonnebulae. I am happy with the latest results.

The moon is getting sharper

These two pictures are taken on august the 5th. In the early morning hours the sky was very clear and there wasn't much seeing. And als the collimation of the scope wasn't that bad. So the circumstances were good to make sharp pictures. These photo's of the moon (last quarter) are the sharpest yet. For the photo of the crater Copernicus, I used 3 frames that are combined in photoshop.

Vacation results

I have been to France for a short holiday. Clear and very dark skies!!! These photo's are my latest results.

New template for photo's

This is the new template that I will use for future Photographs. Besides the actual photo it will also show all the technical data.

The dark side of the moon

For this photo of the moon I took 2 images: one with a "normal exposure time (1/60 seconds), and one with a longer exposure time (1 second). These pictures where combined to one with photoshop. This will give a total view of the moon.

Thin moon cresent

This is a mosaic of 5 pictures that I took with the 8" telescope and the Philips Vesta Pro webcam. I used a shutter speed of 1/30 second and took aprox. 600 images. The resulting photo's where stitched together with Photoshop. Click on the image to see "the big picture"...

M51: Resampled

While testing my new laptop I resampled my picture of M51 (Canes Venatici). I also detected that two other little galaxy's are visible: IC 4263 (Mvis 15,7) and NGC 5169 (Mvis 14.4). These galaxy's are found at the right hand corner, below the middle. Can you find them? Never before I photographed objects this dimm.
The tests revealed that Microsoft Vista causes a lot of driver problems. I need to solve them before my holiday in Southern France. I take the telescope, the camera an the laptop along. Time is ticking.....

Saturn occulation by the moon

On 22th of may this year the moon and saturn had a close encounter. Unfortunally I was unable to photograph the point when saturn became visible again. A band of clouds blocked my view. But a couple of minutes later I took this photo. There is a lot of differance in luminosity between the moon and saturn so that had to bee corrected.

M81 and M82 in Ursa Majoris

On this photo you'll see a galaxy edge on (M82) and a galaxy from above. But then again what is up and down in space? I again used 20 pictures of 30 seconds exposuretime at 800 ASA. Notice the fine structure in M81. The spital arm are visible.

M97 in Ursa Majoris

This is also a planetary nebulae. Only this one is green! For this photo I took 20 exposures of 30 seconds at 1600 ASA. These where also stacked with DeepSkyStacker and touched-up with Photoshop.

Latest Deepsky result...

Last night we had very clear skies. I went outside at 12 at night, and went to bed at 3:30. But with some result! This is my photo of M27 "the dumbell nebula". I took 20 frames, 1600 ISO, 30 seconds each (10 minutes in total). These frames where stacked with Deepskystacker. In Photoshop the photo was adjusted with curves and contrast/luminosity. It is totaly amasing to get so much detail!. Als the number of stars is fantastic. This is also due to the proximity of the milky way (our own galaxy). I also made an enlargement to show the finer detail inside the nebula. And I also enhanced the colours. I found out that the canon 350D is a little insensetive to red :-(

M57 in Lyra

This a photo of M57 in detail. Als this photo is touched-up a little with Photoshop. Also the central star, wich exploded and caused this ring of gas, is visible. Look in the centre of the nebulae. Unfortunaly my Canon doesn't record red so well. Otherwise the red outer rimm of the nebulae would be visible also.

My airplane video..

See my airplane video:

Moon and airplane

When you're outside a lot you will encouter the odd chance to take a picture like this. I photographed this on april 22.

M13 - Globular cluster in Hercules

This week finaly clear skies again. I had a shot at M13. This is a globular cluster that belongs to our own galaxy. In total I took twenty photo's with an exposion of 1 minute on 800 ASA. These photo's where stacked with DeepSkyStacker. In this case you get a photo with a total exposure time of 20 minutes. After that a little touch-up in Photoshop. For those of you who realy pay attention: In the upper left corner NGC 6207 is also visible. This galaxy has an apparent magnitude of 12,1!

Saturn

This is my latest attempt to photograph Saturn. Yesterday we had clear sky's and de seeing was good. Technical data:

Philips Vesta Pro on a 200 mm F5 Newton

Barlow (3x) and a IR/UV blocking filter

600 images (590 used) stacked witch RegiStax

This is a course result. It still needs some photoshopping ;-)

I'm pleased with the result

M51 - second attempt

After a few tips from fellow amateur-astronomers I went outside and had another go at M51. Also I mastered some techniques in Photoshop. See the picture below for the latest result...

Deepsky

A couple of day's ago I started with deepsky photography. I made photo's with the camera piggyback on the telescope (see the post down below). Finaly I managed to connect my Canon 350D on to the telescope. Last night was a very clear night. Ideal to shoot some pictures. It took me almost 4 hours to take the pictures. I needed a lot of time to prepare the telescope. :-)
For all pictures I used a camera sensetivity of 1600 ASA. I shot 10 pictures with a shutterspeed of 30 seconds (total exposure time 5 minutes). The seperate pictures where combined to one with DeepSkyStacker. For the final touch-up I used Photoshop. See my results in the enclosed pictures (click on one of the pictures to see the enlargement):

New Camera

This week i bought a new camera. The canon 350D. This camera is very suiteable to make astrophoto's. In the next couple of weeks I am going to test it on different objects. This summer a take my telescope with me on holiday. I expect that in southern France the conditions will be exellent. Here is also a photo with the camera "piggyback" on my telescope. With a camera wich has a ISO value of 1600 and long exposures it schould be possible to make magnificent photographs. Check for results later on.

Using the new camera

Yesterday I bought a new digital camera. The Canon EOS 350D. I made a test photo of the open cluster is the constelation Perseus. On the photo there are stars visible up to mag. 12! I didn't have much time to make more photo's. In the next test session I will try to get better results.

Finally The sun

It doesn't look like much but this is my first picture of the sun. Right in the middle is sunspot 944. I used a "solar-screen" sun filter. And the webcam was used to take the picture. 266 images stacked. The next couple of years we go to a solar maximum. That means a lot of sunspots. And hopefully also bigger ones ;-).

Focusser "Chris-style........

Behold! I ordered a radio knob at Conrads. It reduces the adjustment turns on my focusser 6 times. This way it is easy to fine focus on any object. It just costs me € 30,- instead of a "original" finefocusser of € 165,- :-)

Mail me and I will send you the details.

Saturn with filter

Getting a step closer again!!! This week I bought a Baader UV/IR filter. This filter blocks infra-red and ultra-violet light. This light tends to blur the image. In the enclosed picture you can see the results. The sharpest image up to now! Although the seeing was poor! There is a slight colour abberation. I suspect that this is due to bad collimation. I try to fix that later on.

Click on the image to see it in its original size!

The moons of Saturn

In this (over)exposed image you can see five of Saturn's moons. From left to right you can see Iapetus, Titan, Tethys, Dione and Rhea. The faintest moon on this picture is mag 10! I'm happy with the result.

Saturn RGB

After re-programming my webcam, i could use it to make RAW images. Altough they are in black and white, they are a lot sharper. All I need is a technique to proces the RGB greyscale images into a color image. But for the time being I very happy with the results up to now. If anyone has tips and / or tricks, please let me know.

Saturn in greater detail

Behold.... my finest result until now! It took me a while but i'm very pleased with this result. This photo is taken with a Philips Vesta webcam. I stacked 200 frames into this picture. The exposure time was 1/25 sec. per frame. To take a step further i will need a UV/IR filter. This will give a sharper image. So, another item on my next wish list...... ;-)

The moon (with high magnification)

This time a photo of the moon with high magnification. By using a 3x Barlow lens in primary focus, the magnification is boosted to approx. 600 times. Getting the picture sharp is very difficult. My focuser is very sensitif. I hope to show better photo's later on.

Saturn with barlowlens

Well, here it is! Saturn! Fotographed with an 8 inch Newton telescope and a 3x barlow lens. I know I'm not there yet but I'm getting there.
I used 300 frames, stacked with RegiStax 4.0. Furthermore I used Photoshop to sharpen en colour the photo (perhaps I overdone it a little).
The seeing at the time of the photo was poor. Also Saturn stood only 20 degrees above the horizon. I'm sure the photo's will get better under better conditions.

Using Neximage in primary focus

This is my latest picture of the the moon. I used my Neximage in the primary focus of my telescoop. This week I ordered a Barlow lens. This way it is possible to get even better photo's. I hope to show you the results in a short while.

Regards and clear sky's to everyone...