|
I've been doing deep sky imaging with four different cameras. My first images were with one based on the TI-211
CCD. The second was with the abomidable Meade 216XT. The third phase involved the excellent Starlight Xpress MX5-C.
The fourth and current phase uses the Starlight Xpress MX916.
Below are my best images.
Click on the images to see full size.
This is an image of M33, the large spiral galaxy in the constellation
of Triangulum, and near to the Andromeda galaxy M31. Taken at the 2003 Nightfall star party, using a 120 mm aperture
f/5 refractor and the Starlight Xpress MX916 and a 60 second exposure.
On June 16th 2001, I and twenty other people spent the night at
the Mt Wilson 60 inch Cassegrain telescope, This image of the Catseye Planetary nebula was taken with a n Olympus C-3000
digital camera held the a 100 mm eyepiece attached to the venerable telescope. It closely approximates what was seen
at the eyepiece.
June 8th 2002. Ford Observatory, Wrightwood, CA
First light honors with my new MX916 camera went to a Syntha 120mm
f/5 refractor on a GP mount. The exposures were unguided.
First target was Omega Centauri. Starry Night Pro showed that
it was past the Meridian but still 8 degrees above the horizon. Unfortunately, the local horizon was at least 5 degrees
up from flat, AND there was smoke from a fire 60 miles away, plainly visible in the late afternoon. Three strikes usually
means you're out, but in this case the proof is in the image, shown below.
This 30 - second exposure is raw; only simple
contrast enhancement was done. The glow to the left is due to some ambient light; this camera proved to be far more
sensitive to this than anything I've worked with.. Despite a quick Dec drift alignment, there isn't too much tracking
error. On the other hand, every pixel is covering almost 4 arc-seconds.
The image is taken in the MX916's fast high resolution mode,
binning 2 pixels in the vertical direction which was resized to give the correct aspect ratio.
Because the image is not overexposed the central region is easier
to see. One striking thing is that there is less obvious structure here than in a lot of other globulars; compare it
to M4 below. Arcs, threads, loops, etc, are not that prominant in Omega. Perhaps crowding close to one million
stars into a tight area produces enough randomness that such structures are not as prominant as in other clusters.
This image of M4 was taken on the same night as the Omega Centauri
image using the same equipment.
This image of NGC 7331 and Stephan's Quintet was taken on Sept 11th
2004 using a 120mm f/5 refractor, the Starlight Xpress MX916 camera and a 120 sec exposure. NGC 7331 located near the
top of the image is a large spiral galaxy. Stephan's Quintet consists of the four nebulosities near the bottom of the
image. It is a Quintet because on of the nebulosities consists of two interacting galaxies. There are other much
fainter galaxies in the image, but they can only be identified by comparing this image with a map of the region.
No library of images is complete it seems without an image of one
of the famous objects in Astronomy, so I include this, my bet image of M42 the Orion Nebula. Taken on October 4th 2002
from Borrego Springs during the annual Nightfall star party using the MX916 camera and a 30 second exposure through a 120mm
f/5 refractor.
|
