photo of mars I took

[corpusse]

Last week was opposition.  Mars and Earth were very close.  This happens roughly every 2 years.  The next time it will be this close is not till 2014 though as the next opposition isn't as close of a pass.

I took this through my telescope using a planetary image camera which is basically a modified webcam.



I dunno if anyone here is interested in it, I just recently got into astronomy and am quite pleased I was able to take this.  You can see some surface detail and the south pole is covered with ice.

[RobTheGood]

seems pretty cool to me congrats on the photo.

[trodge]

Very cool pic!

[BlueJayWay]

It was thought that the Martian polar caps were made of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) but it turns out that they're almost entirely water ice, with just a thin layer of dry ice on top.  I didn't realize that and still thought it was dry ice, but that's kind of interesting...

[Darryl]

Very cool indeed.

[blue_metal]

That is pretty cool! What X magnification is that (or whatever astronomy telescopes go by).

[corpusse]

That is pretty cool! What X magnification is that (or whatever astronomy telescopes go by).

I'm not really sure to be honest.  Probably 300x or so.  I'm not exactly sure of the camera's magnification.

I've been trying to image saturn but have not got a pic I like yet.  Yesterday I braved the cold to take this photo of The Orion Nebula (M42).  This is done with a regular DSLR attached to the telescope, effectively using the telescope as the camera's lens.

From my driveway in mississauga. 



This is a 4 minute 10 second exposure.  Because the camera has an IR filter it blocks some of the colour it really should be more pinkish red, but I did manage to capture the nebula clouds quite well.  The 4 stars in the center are what causes the nebula clouds. 

[Krylian]

Awesome stuff.  Astronomy is facinating.

[Dirtybird]

Very nice pictures. Are you also reading about astronomical theory?

[BlueJayWay]

That last one is really good.  How did you attach the camera to the telescope?

[corpusse]

Very nice pictures. Are you also reading about astronomical theory?

No.  To be honest I just got into astronomy about 6 months ago.  One day I looked through someones scope saw Jupiter and it's 4 largest moons and was amazed.

To attach a camera you need a special ring that goes on the camera like a lens and an extension barrel which is like an empty eye piece.    You use special software to stack your pictures.  The Orion pictuer is a series of images combined to make a 4 minute 10 second exposure shot.

[Blacksheep]

That second shot is incredible, looks like something NASA puts out. You've got me intrigued about this kind of photography now as I'm a quasi professional one (was a reporter and photog when I worked at a newspaper, now I'm a researcher & photog for publications at the college where I work). Guess my question is about the telescope, is it your own and what type is it? It would be cool if you could link your whole setup, I'd really like to try this some time.

[woodpecker]

wow!  the first pic was good but the 2nd blew us away!  nice1!

[corpusse]

That second shot is incredible, looks like something NASA puts out. You've got me intrigued about this kind of photography now as I'm a quasi professional one (was a reporter and photog when I worked at a newspaper, now I'm a researcher & photog for publications at the college where I work). Guess my question is about the telescope, is it your own and what type is it? It would be cool if you could link your whole setup, I'd really like to try this some time.

Thanks.

The celescope I own is a celestron CGEM 800.  The important thing with astrophotography is the mount more so then the actual telescope.  This is because the mount must track well for long exposure photography.  Despite the fact this is a $2000 setup it is more or less an entry level setup.  The Orion nebula is the brightest nebula in the northern hemisphere making it relatively easy to photography.  For longer exposure you need what's called an auto guider which would be another camera attached to another scope that guides the larger imaging scope even better allowing longer tracking.

Some of the real crazy pics you see are exposures of several hours.  This is usually done with stacking.  My picture is a 4 minute and 10 second exposure, but I used a stacking program to stack several 30 second and a few 10 second exposures to get it.  My mount is not capable if tracking for 4mins +   A really good one can for 20,30 minutes or longer and then you can take ten 30 minute exposures and stack them to make a 5hr exposure single shot.  Usually the program will throw some images away so it's not always every single one combined.

http://www.celestron.com/c3/product.php?CatID=73&ProdID=541
This is my scope / mount.  Pay more attention to the mount as it is the essential part for photography



You attach that ring to your SLR

Then an attachment bar like this you attach the camera on one end and your scope on the other



I hope I'm explaining this well enough for you.  I am very much a newbie,  If you have any further questions don't hesitate to ask.

[corpusse]

The one thing I will add soon is a focal reducer.  Right now I'm shooting at F10, but with a 6.3 focal reducer I can get better pictures with shorter exposures as well as a wider field of view.

[Blacksheep]

Thanks a ton for the explanation (with pics). Certainly it's helping to point me in the right direction as I look into this further. 

[corpusse]

Well it's finally clear.  I am just trying out the focal reducer.  Showing a couple of friends this first pic thought you might be interested blacksheep (and everyone else for that matter).

[Blacksheep]

That is quite stunning, I'm very impressed with the photos your setup can take. I'm imagining the photo it could take when my area gets a harvest moon, so big you can see the craters without a telescope on the ground!

[corpusse]

Got a good one of saturn last night too.

[Krylian]

Great stuff.