Taken 1/17/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe LRGB 16frames at 30sec

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Taken 1/16/05

Tak Mewlon 300mm w/FLI Dream Machine RGB 3frames at 30sec

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Comet 2006/M4 SWAN

Taken  10/27/2006

It was taken remotely from Mayhill New Mexico using the Rent-A-Scope telescope known as AREO-3. This telescope is a Takahashi Sky 90 with a SBIG-10xme CCD camera, all mounted on a Bisque Paramount.

The image itself is a mosaic of 3 separate RGB images. Each RGB image is composed of 3 to 12 subframes of 60 seconds each. That is a total exposure time of 18 minutes. I also shot luminance frames but elected not to use them. The color frames were shot unbinned. 

The total angular distance of the tail is over 3 degs.

Just playing around with binning and exposure times. I also whacked the curves . I had some trouble subtracting dark frames so it is quite noisy. It is still better than any image I could have ever imaged I would take.

Taken 1/30/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe LRGB 12 frames binned at 1x1 2x2 3x3 at various times from 180sec to 300sec.

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Another view through a different telescope. Also played with curves to bring out some color.

Taken 1/16/05

Tak Mewlon 300mm w/FLI Dream Machine LRGB

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Yet another view through a different telescope. Fascinating study in high end optics and CCD cameras.

Taken 1/16/05

Tak 300mm RC w/SBIG st8e  Anti-Blooming

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

One of my first images of a Globular Cluster. We recently had a speaker at our astronomy society give a talk about Globular Clusters. Now they are even more  fascinating .

Taken 1/16/05

Tak 300mm RC w/SBIG st8e  Anti-Blooming 3 frames at 6sec

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Open clusters are still a mystery to me. Cool looking but mysterious.

Taken 2/8/05

FLI Dream Machine

1 frame each LRGB @ 90 sec

Combined in MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I know its been done billions and billions of times. But not by me. Orion must hold a dear spot for most astronomers. It is always visible but you would hardly recognize it using this CCD stuff.

Taken 2/8/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe

1 frame of each  RGB x 20sec  (no LUM-makes for pretty colors)

Combined in MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

It really does not pick up on the reflecting nebula aspect of the PLEIADES. But that is what you get for only using a 1 sec exposure.

Taken 3/17/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe

1-Lum x 1sec, 1-RGB binned 1sec (4 frames total)

Combined in MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Galaxy clusters are too cool.

Taken 3/3/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe

1-Lum x 200sec, 1-RGB binned 2x2 200sec (4 frames total)

Combined in MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Using the wide field of the SKY90 really puts things in perspective.

Taken 2/4/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe

1-Lum x 180sec, 1-RGB binned 2x2 180sec (4 frames total)

Combined in MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I thought I would try something really faint and amorphous. M97 is really really faint and amorphous. Still got an excellent image. This stuff really does violate physics.

Taken 1/18/05

Tak 300mm RC w/SBIG st8e  Anti-Blooming RGB 3 frames at 5min

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

My first image at Rent a Scope. Really it was just a test shot. It needed more exposure but still it was a great picture to my standards.

Taken 1/16/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe 3 frames at 6sec

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I thought I would go nuts and use lots of frames and lots of exposure time. An awful lot of combining to do. If the sky is dark I prefer just to use a longer exposure.

 

12 LUM frames and 5 each of RGB

Combined with MaximDL

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

Sombrero was not up yet. I really like edge on galaxies so this really filled the bill. It was a full moon that night. Also I pushed the curves a bit to bring out some color.

Taken 1/24/05

Tak 300mm RC w/SBIG st8e  Anti-Blooming a combination of 2 LUMx5min and 2 each RGB binned 2x2 at 5mins each

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I really like the wide angle of the Sky 90. I was looking for something just big enough to fill the frame. This telescope camera combination has a 68x101 acrminute field of view.  Stunning enough?

Taken 1/28/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe LRGB 4 frames at 3min

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I never in a million years thought taking a picture like this was within reach of amateur astronomers. This image is about a deg and a half wide. M87 is in the lower left.

Taken 1/28/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe LRGB 4 frames at 3min

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I just wanted to take a shot of the Veil Nebula. Little did I know it was HUGE. it is like 3º across. So being a glutton for punishment I delved in to Photoshop. I used Miracle merge or some such feature and here you have it. Not to even and a little faint but hey. (Just to be extra geeky I used Hydrogen alpha for the Luminance frame)

Taken 10/5/05

Tak Sky90 w/SBIG st10xe HaRGB 16 frames at 90sec.

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

I love the trapezium. It is just wonderful to look at. The brilliance of the stars is somewhat shown in this image. This was a really short exposure. Something like half a second. And you can still see the Orion nebula glowing. Total insanity.

Taken 1/17/05

Tak 300mm RC w/SBIG st8e  Anti-Blooming RGB 3 frames

Taken at Rent a Scope in New Mexico

For more Astro Images check out the Gallery at AstroAcres.com I even took some.