Stars
Milkyway From Truckee Calforinia
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
After the eclipse we left Lake Tahoe and went over to my friend Jose’s house in Truckee California. He was nice enough to take us to a remote location in Truckee on the top of a mountain. We had to hike for about 15 minutes through the dark and wilderness before we got to a clearing near the peak. It was worth the walk though. No moon, high elevation and dark skies made for some nice Milkway Photos.
In the picture below, the glow behind the tree in the center is the city light from Reno, NV.
There was a big boulder that one of the guys climbed up on. I thought it would make a cool shot so I told him to stand still.
Then the other guys gave it a try.
The skies in truckee are the nicest I’ve ever seen.
This observing and photography session was a great way to end our solar eclipse day. I’m very thankful to have had this opportunity and to have met Jose while meteorite hunting in Coloma, CA. I really appreciate Jose taking me out in the middle of the night to a remote location to take these pictures.
Messier 5 – First Color CCD Photo Ever
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
I had a good run on globular clusters during last month’s new moon phase that culminated with this color shot of M5. Note the faint green trail of a satellite in the upper left. The only reason its green is because I was shooting through a green filter when the satellite crossed the field of view.
I have been transitioning from DSLR astrophotography to CCD photography. The CCD cameras are way better and the quality and overall ease of things is much better, but there is a bit of a learning curve. I’m still working out some issues with the optics and guiding combos. This photo guided perfectly with the MOAG, but due to the way things are connected, I can’t use the field flattener / corrector when I’m using the MOAG. As a result, there is distortion and stretching at the outer corners. I have since setup a guide-scope, so I can use the corrector and I’m getting worse guide results now. So there’s still work to be done… All this aside, M5 turned out pretty good for the first attempt at a color shot and July is starting out nicely too.
Photo Details
30x30x30 RGB
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
Messier 10
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of Messier 10, a globular cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus.
Photo Details
4×10 Clear Filter / Total Exposure Time 40 minutes
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
Globular Star Cluster – Messier 15
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of the Globular Star Cluster Messier 15 located in the constellation Pegasus. Estimated to be 13.2 billion years old, M15 is one of the oldest known star clusters.
Photo Details
18×10 Clear Filter / Total Exposure Time 180 minutes
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding off-axis with a 402 mounted using a MOAG.
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
Star Cluster Messier 13
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Globular star clusters are one of the many fascinating things you can image in the night sky. These clusters are the place where stars are born by the 100s of 1000s. M13 also known as Great Globular Cluster in Hercules boasts over 300,000 stars.
I have been setting up / testing / learning some new equipment and software the last few months and this is the first image I have created from the new rig. I still have some things to work on, but we’re getting there.
Photo Details
LRGB 60x40x40x40 / Total Exposure Time 3 Hours
Camera SBIG ST8300
Guiding with 402 & Piggy back guide scope
Paramount ME Mount
William Optics FLT98
CCDSoft / The Sky X / CCDStack
Double Cluster
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of the Double Cluster in Perseus aka NGC 884 & 869. This is one of the most spectacular visual objects you can look at — its so big and covers so much space you can actually see it with the naked eye. In powerful telescopes you have to move the scope to view the entire object. Both of these clusters are thought to be 7000 light years away from us and only a few hundred light years away from each other. They are infants in the stellar sense, both less than 6 million years old. Considering our solar system is 4.5 billion years old, that’s pretty young. The Double Cluster is a great object to showcase at a star party or to show first time astronomers.
Photo Details
26×4 minute iso 400 exposures
Canon 20DA Camera
CGEM Mount
William Optics FLT98
SBIG STV Auto Guider
Spiral Cluster
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
The Spiral Cluster, aka M34 is an open cluster in the constellation of Perseus found not far from the Perseus Double Cluster. M34 is an open cluster believed to have first been discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna sometime before 1654. In 1764 Charles Messier described it as
“a cluster of small stars between the head of Medusa and the left foot of Andromeda, a little below the parallel of gamma Andromedae. In an ordinary telescope of 3 foot [focal length] one can distinguish the stars.”
Photo Details
William Optics FLT 98 / CGEM Mount
Canon 20Da Camera
SBIG STV Auto Guider
24×3 minute ISO 400
Total Exposure Time: 1 hour 12 minutes
6 flat frames (av mode) & 1 dark
Summertime Milkyway
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
I took these milkyway photos this past July 4th, 2010. I mounted my DSLR and standard lens on top of my telescope, so that I could benefit from the mount’s tracking (and leave the shutter open longer to capture the milkway.) Each of these photos is a single 3 minute exposure @ ISO 800. I live in the suburbs, of the suburbs so it seems dark, but it is still considered an orange light pollution zone (just 2 notches down from the city). Surprisingly you can see the milkway quite well with your naked eye on a moonless summer night.
Pleiades
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of the Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters. This open star cluster is one of the closest to Earth and clearly visible to the naked eye in the constellation Taurus. The prominent dust cloud surrounding the stars was once thought to be a nebula left over from the star formation, but is now believed to be just a dust cloud within the interstellar medium.
Photo Details
William Optics FLT 98
Canon 20Da Camera
13×3 minute ISO 400
SBIG STV Auto Guider
M53
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of Messier 53, a globular cluster in the Coma Berenices constellation.
M5 Globular Star Cluster
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
No its not the BMW M5, its Messier’s M5. M5 is one of the larger globular star clusters in our galaxy. Its about 24,000 light years away from earth and thought to hold 100,000 to 500,000 stars.
William Optics FLT98
Canon 20Da DSLR Camera
38 minute exposure 19×2 minute
ISO 800
STV Autoguider
No moon, clear
The Beehive Cluster
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a photo of M44 an open cluster in the constellation Cancer. To the naked eye the Beehive Cluster looks like a nebula in the middle of the constellation.
This picture was taken with a William Optics FLT 98 Refractor and a Canon 20Da camera.
Arcturus
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
Here’s a quick snap of Arcturus. This is a single 30 second exposure using the new William Optics telescope. I’m still waiting on some mounting brackets before I will be 100% with the new scope, so the content production is a little slow right now.
Star & Satellite
by Mike Hankey, under Stars
I took this picture while testing out the focus and trying to align the scope. When I reviewed it the next day I spotted what looks like a satellite streak in the upper left corner.