Here is the procedure I go through for astrophotography of deep sky
objects with a digital SLR. It will be different for different
equipment and situations, but it’s still a basic template of a plan.
Before I go out, I find out basic information for the observing site.
I find latitude and longitude as accurately as possible, and […]

again, nontelescopic. They are on my photo page with the other photos. Added are Lyra and Hercules. I can use GIMP on the Hercules photo to bring out the globular cluster M13, but only by ruining the rest of the image. Note in Lyra that Epsilon Lyrae (the double double) is […]

big-dipper-web.jpg
This is a photo I took of the big dipper. More photos are here.
Here is a practice drawing from Starry Night.
Here is Van Gogh’s impression of the Big Dipper. One of the first asterisms many people learn to recognize is the seven-star Big Dipper, consisting of the seven brightest stars of Ursa Major, […]

I have added a new photo of the moon to the astrophotography page. I took this with the camera on automatic shutter/F settings, focus to infinity, and telephoto zoomed to full. I have no photo or drawing, but in the telescope, the moon was particularly interesting. Toward the top, right on the […]

When the moon is not up and the weather is reasonable, we have star parties at one of our two viewing sites. Last night, we went to Alpha Ridge park. There were some clouds, but still much was viewable. I saw Mercury for the first time in my scope and in binoculars, […]

I added another picture I had taken yesterday to the page of sky photos. This time, I used Gimp a little to enhance the stars and darken the skyglow. Antares now looks reddish-yellow. Scorpius is low where I live and in binoculars, Anteres is a boiling mass of changing colors. I […]

No telephoto, just the DSC F717, 30 second exposure (I figured out how to do that yesterday) on my telescope tripod. Note how Mizar and Alcor are well seperated and easily visible. Note also that a 30-second exposure amplifies a streetlight-lit tree to daylight levels.
I took this and several other pictures tonight in […]

I thought I’d look through the telesocpe tonight, as the Clear Sky Clock seemed to be in my favor. But–it was so hazy I could see very little. I tried something “easy” (M13), but couldn’t find it. So I used my binoculars….I couldn’t find it there either! It has to be […]