2005-03-03 |
Images of the Rosetta spacecraft. |
2004-06-08 |
Images of the transit of Venus. Ingress and Egress (WITH 'black drop' effect)!! |
2004-05-16 |
Images of Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4). |
2003-10-25 |
Image of Sun spots 484 and 486. |
2003-10-21 |
Image of Comet Encke. |
2003-09-16 |
My first colour images of Mars using a ToUcam. |
2003-04-04 |
My first images of a GRB afterglow. |
2003-01-12 |
A really steady night gave great planetry images |
I have owned the TAL 1, 4.5" reflector and the Orion GPX200. It was the f/4 version and was mounted on the GP mount with the Sky Sensor 2000PC controller.
I now own the Meade LX200, 10" f10 Schmidt-Cassegrain. I have made an observatory out of a 8ft x 6ft garden shed with a roll off roof.
One of my main interests is Astro Photography. This page was originally designed to show what can be done using equipment other than CCD cameras, which unless you have a laptop or your scope is set up in a weather proof building, can be difficult to use. I have now bought a second hand Starlight Express CCD camera. I can use it with my laptop in my observatory. I can still use my SLR camera for piggy-back photography and prime focus images.
Any links will take you to the page associated with the text, whether it is an explanation or another site.
I belong to a local Astronomy society. We have a meeting once a month, dates for which can be found on our website.
One of the main things that is essential to good astro photos is a strong, supdate mount with an RA, (Right Ascension) motor drive. Photos can be made by other means. You can use very short exposures, (less than a second), with your camera mounted on a tripod, but this can give star trailing if longer exposures are used.
If you want to try astro photography without spending too much money, you can use very limited equipment. All you need to start is a camera which you can adjust the shutter speed on, a couple bits of wood, and some other odds and ends which can be found lurking at the bottom of the shed or bought cheaply from hardware stores. To stop star trailing, you have to account for the fact that the Earth rotates and the stars appear to move.
A common device called a "barn door tracker" can be made which will enable the camera to track the stars by turning a handle one revolution per minute. Once all the bits have been gathered, it will take about a weekend to make depending on your woodwork skills. The plans for the one I made came from Steve Tonkin's ATM pages. This mount will give good results up to about 20 minute exposures, but after that it becomes a bit inaccurate. Many other designs exist which are more complicated and can be found buy using one of the many search engines and links from other ATM (Amateur Telescope Making), pages.
The other way is to use the "piggy back" method. This is for people with telescopes on an Equatorial Mount or Fork Mounted scope with a wedge. With the mount set up to the Celestial you can track the stars using the RA controls. The camera is securely attached to the scope, in a place which has least effect on the scopes balance. When the R.A. drive is on and the mount is set up correctly, the camera will also track the stars.