Author Topic: Geek Alert: first astrophoto attempts (Read 2067 times)

CptTrips · « **on:** July 23, 2003, 08:49:07 PM »

http://webpages.charter.net/JasonIrby/astro_pics/07_19_2003/

Not great, but its a start. I still have a lot of learning to do. Trying to get the kinks worked out before end of Aug. Mars will be at its closest point in 2000 years. I want to get some decent footage.

Sharp DV ViewCam attatched to 12" Meade GPS.

Wab

Mark Luper · « **Reply #1 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:27:52 PM »

Cool shots Wabbit. I thought Mars is the closest it's been in 50,000 years. Is that not right? Not much of an astronomer here...

.

udet · « **Reply #2 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:39:05 PM »

awesome!!!

Maverick · « **Reply #3 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:43:01 PM »

Great shots. How did you get them? Describe equipment if you don't mind.

OIO · « **Reply #4 on:** July 23, 2003, 09:49:08 PM »

Whohoo wabbit!

I envy you!

I got my 6" Refractor with autostar and it works great!

Im waiting on my eyepieces and barlows and CCD camera to arrive!

CptTrips · « **Reply #5 on:** July 23, 2003, 10:01:35 PM »

Mark,

I stand corrected. Closest in 60,000 years according to Sky&Telescope.

Of course its gets pretty close every 2 years, but this pass its a little closer that usually. Its not going to be a dramatic difference but mars is so small every little bit helps.

Mav,
I have a 12" Meade GPS SCT. I have a bracket that lets me mount my Sharp mini-dv cam in front of the eyepiece looking down into it like I would with my eyeball. I can film and take the tape home to later load onto the PC and pick out the best frames to try and process. Its not as light sensetive as a real CCD but it can capture a lot of frames faster so lets me grab in between air turbulence. Better for planets but not as good for deep sky galaxies and nebulas. But for me personally I'm more interested in planetary, solar, lunar than I am in dark fuzzies.

OIO,

Hmmm sounds nice. I go out to a club dark sky site on the weekends and a guy had a $5,000 6" Takahashi refractor set up next to me. Man the views in that thing were razor sharp. But I still had him beat on pure light gathering power.

I expect some images from you!

Wab

Mini D · « **Reply #6 on:** July 23, 2003, 10:56:50 PM »

I've read a little bit on taking photos using telescopes and there's nothing that looks even remotely easy about it. Eventually you'll be going with the granite slab mounting unit wab... with some kind of shudderless (no moving part) capture system. But there'll always ben that damn atmosphere. Hehehehe.

It really makes one apreciate the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope.

MiniD

Saurdaukar · « **Reply #7 on:** July 23, 2003, 11:35:49 PM »

Great shots - I like this one in particular.

AKS\/\/ulfe · « **Reply #8 on:** July 24, 2003, 12:30:59 AM »

Damn Wab! Those are some amazing pictures!

How did you look at the sun to take those sunspot pictures? Doesn't the telescope magnify the sun's intensity, or did you view it through your camcoder?
-SW

SaburoS · « **Reply #9 on:** July 24, 2003, 01:39:47 AM »

Nice photos!! Thanks for sharing

OIO · « **Reply #10 on:** July 24, 2003, 07:27:55 PM »

Well the Takahashi's are apochromat refractors..thats like the highest quality glass optics you can get. Mine's just an achromat, i will have some color aberration in the edges

but then again, thats why god put photoshop on earth

Im scrambling now to borrow eyepieces, meade wont send me mine until past sept

.

CptTrips · « **Reply #11 on:** July 25, 2003, 02:09:05 AM »

Mini-D,
Yeah, its a money pit. I'm already looking at some rural land to build an observatory on. If it was easy, it wouldn't hardly be worth do'in.

Swulfe,

I have a solar filter that fits on the front end of the optical system that eliminates the infrared and UV and reduces the visual frequencies to safe levels.

OIO,
I've seen techniques where the image is separated into RBG channels and the blue channel reduced in size and then recombined. Tends to compensate for achromatic aberation.

You might be burdened with some more pics monday.

Wab

Bodhi · « **Reply #12 on:** July 25, 2003, 07:19:40 AM »

THanks for sharing Wabbit, looks amazing.

GrimCO · « **Reply #13 on:** July 25, 2003, 08:37:02 AM »

Nice Pics Wabbit,

I have an 8" Celestron C-8 on a Polaris mount with an off axis guider.

I've taken a few stabs at astro-photography using hyper sensitized film (basically you chuck it in dry ice before you use it). I've gotten some decent shots of the Orion Nebula and the Andromeda Galaxy (I scanned the Orion one for ya), but it's a real pain in the arse sitting there for a 30 minute exposure making the corrections with the off axis guider.

CCD's are definitely the way to go, but man they cost a fortune for a good one.

Keep it up man! It's an awesome hobby.

LePaul · « **Reply #14 on:** July 25, 2003, 09:13:14 AM »

Pffft....and they mock me for building an R2-D2

Very cool pics, how much did your scope cost, Weav? I could waste a lot of money at the Celestron or Meade websites...sigh