Mike's Astro Photos

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.

Messier 5 - June 7th, 2011

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

Here’s a photo of Messier 10, a globular cluster in the constellation of Ophiuchus.

Messier 10 - June 3rd, 2011

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

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.

Messier 15 - June 2nd, 2011

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

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.

Messier 13 - May 30th, 2011

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

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.

Double Cluster - December 9th, 2010

Photo Details
26×4 minute iso 400 exposures
Canon 20DA Camera
CGEM Mount
William Optics FLT98
SBIG STV Auto Guider

Spiral Cluster M34 - October 1st, 2010

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

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.

Pleiades - September 6th, 2010

Photo Details
William Optics FLT 98
Canon 20Da Camera
13×3 minute ISO 400
SBIG STV Auto Guider

Here’s a photo of Messier 53, a globular cluster in the Coma Berenices constellation.

M53 - April 10th, 2010

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.

M5 - April 14, 2010

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.

Beehive Cluster - March 20th, 2010

This picture was taken with a William Optics FLT 98 Refractor and a Canon 20Da camera.

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.

arcturus

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.

Star & Satellite

Here’s a picture of M3 a magnificent globular star cluster.

Here’s a photo of M35 an open star cluster in the constellation Gemini. This is a 60 minute exposure (3 minute x 20 frames) at ISO 800 taken with my Canon 20D and CPC 1100 using the focal reducer. This is a pretty big object about the same size as the full moon. I spent most of my time this weekend hunting the skies for Comets Wild 81/P and C/2007 Q3 Siding Spring. These two comets don’t rise until close to midnight so I captured a few DSOs while I was waiting. After 3 nights of searching I still have not been able to find either of these comets, but they will be around for at least a month, so I will keep at it.

Open Cluster M35 - February 19th, 2010

Catalina Mountains Tucson - February 5th, 2010

Here are a few astro photos I took from La Paloma, our Hotel in Tucson. I had originally wanted to drive out into the desert and shoot from there, but the timing wasn’t right so I decided to give it a try from the resort. I spent a few hours one night walking around to different spots trying to get a good vantage point on the stars. It wasn’t till the end of the night that I had discovered the golf course, which turned out to be the perfect place for observing and photographing. There were no street lamps and the course was very dark. The hotel is in the foothills of the Catalina mountains, the suburbs of Tucson, so the skies weren’t super black, but they were better than Baltimore County and the scenery was pretty awesome.

I really wanted to catch some meteor photos over the mountains and I thought about setting up the camera and leaving it running for the whole night, but the thought of sleeping on the golf course didn’t do much for me and I didn’t want to leave the camera unattended in such a public place. I shot 3-5 pictures from a dozen or so different spots. No meteors but the cacti, mountains and sky line all contributed to some cool photos.

Tucson Skyline - February 5th, 2010

Big Dipper & Cactus in Tucson - February 5th, 2010

Big Dipper Catalina Mountains - February 5th, 2010

Catalina Mountains Tucson

Orion From Tucson - February 5th, 2010

Orion Tucson - February 5th, 2010