Mike's Astro Photos

The new observatory is almost complete. I just got power working last night. I have the scope setup in there on the tripod as I haven’t gotten the pier yet. Its currently being fabricated and I should have it by the end of the month. Photography wise I’m limited to piggyback shots until I get the pier installed. I took this photo of Andromeda last night, I simply mounted my camera on top of my telescope, pointed to the Andromeda and snapped 5×2 minute exposures. I stacked 3 inside photoshop to create this image. There was the lowest default zoom on the camera, so the size of Andromeda is what it would be if you saw it with your naked eye (no magnification). Andromeda is the fuzzy ball in the center of the pic.

Andromeda Galaxy - September 19th, 2009

Milkway with Vega

Here’s a picture of the Milkway with Vega. This picture is a stacked composite of 12, 2 minute exposures at ISO800. The camera was mounted ontop of the scope piggyback style. I got my first successful attempts at the milkway last night and this is the results of my second night. The scope and camera were pointed at the zenith (straight up) which helped out a lot with the image / light pollution.

Here’s a piggy back photo of Orion. Its 3×30 second exposures stacked in photoshop. The red star in the middle of the 3 sword stars is M42 the Orion Nebula.

Orion

Here’s a 30 second piggy back exposure of Sirus and Orion.

Sirius and Orion Piggyback