Aside from Music which ranges from musical films from the 30/40s, opera and 50s pop my main hobby is Astronomy and I have quite a collection of telescopes... including a couple of vintage scopes from the 60s and one I made myself from damaged stock.
Thanks, I'm afraid my telescope collecting ran away with itself a bit, I currently have another ten or so of various sizes and types... I guess a few people here probably have the same issue with lamps... My attempts at astrophotography are at best fairly amateur and I generally just use a webcam attached to the telescope. Even with just a webcam I've seen some fantastic images compared to mine - so It's fair to say I'm mainly a visual observer. The June the 8th Transit of Venus taken from a live webcast I was doing. The Telescope I used for this was the first of the two "vintage" telescopes on the wooden tripods seen in my opening post. Finally one of the few astro pictures I have that were taken with a real camera. This was the June 21st 2001 Eclipse taken from a site off the Kafue Road, Lusaka, Zambia
I have a nice telescope in the basement, but it's hard to see the sky from here I'll probably be asking you for tips this winter on seeing the planets.
That's really nice photos. And just using a webcam! I like the one on Saturn. The diamond ring eclipse (not sure it's the right english word. That's how we call that moment when the sun just is about to break out of the eclipse.) was cool too. Have you not considered an attachment for a DSLR? I've seen some stunning photos made by simpler telescopes than your's with a decent camera, so you have a real potential there. I have always been facinated by the night sky myself, and a good telescope was high on my wish list already as a little kid. I never got one... Strange, but now when I got the money, I haven't bought one. Perhaps a thing to consider again...
Neighbor Al - I'd be happy to help if I can. Maybe I'll use this thread to post a few pointers when there's something interesting to see. There are several free planetarium programs on the net that can help you find your way around the sky. I use one called Hallo Northern Sky, but many people recommend one called Stellarium. Jupiter is quite prominent in the night sky now and becoming more so as we move into winter. If you can find the constellation Taurus then it's pretty hard to miss. Christer - I have considered a DSLR and I have the attachments to hand, but much like your telescope I've always found other things to spend my money on. Also I am primarily a visual observer, with the planets being my main interest. By the way, the diamond ring is the term we use for that effect. I skirted round the eclipse chasing part of my hobby - sadly I haven't been for a while.
Oh here's a picture of the Sun that I took through my solar telescope... This scope has a special filter that shows up details you can't see in normal light.
Didn't Henry (where is he?) take a telescope to Newark one year? Maybe I dreamed that, but he certainly posted astronomical images he'd taken on CCS. I've always fancied a telescope myself but the light pollution around here is horrendous - especially the neighbour with a street light in his back garden.
David, didn't you pollute the environment with some FL6 not long ago? I've seen a photo somewhere in the forum I'm sure on other planets photos are existing taken with telescopes showing your illumination (they also had to use a special filter)
Guilty as charged! That was with eight FL6s to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June. I've come across another two (or is it three?) since then and Shagratork (Trevor) is going to loan me another pair so the planned light-up at Christmas should be even better...
Hi- Glad I'm not alone I had this Skywatcher for a while, I still have the little 90mm version in blue...
They do seem to have quite a good reputation. Do you keep a lamp lit in your shed for warmth when observing?
I'm afraid I just brave the cold, which is why as I've got older I tend to be a less enthusiastic observer than I once was... I'm certainly beginning the appreciate the advantages of Solar observing more
For those of you who can see the moon tonight and may have noticed the bright star like object to the left of it - that is the planet Jupiter. Quite a beautiful sight so close to the full moon. Those of you with binoculars might like to spot some of Jupiter's own moons close to the planet. At the time of writing all four of it's brightest moons are visible. At other times one or more of them may be behind, in front or simply too close to the planet to see with binoculars.
Can't see it tonight because it's too cloudy out but here is a picture I took of the moon a while ago when we did have some clear nights. Note that there was no telescope used, only the power of my camera lens.
Too cloudy here too, unfortunately. I also like to take photos of the moon with nothing but the camera. One of these days I might treat myself with a good telescope with a camara attachment, but until then I'm stuck with nothing but the camera and a 300mm lens as the longest. I actually prefer to shoot the moon when it's half, or thereabout. A full moon, or close to that, will always produce quite flat and "dead" images. The structures of its face is much more interesting when it's illuminated sideways and get nice shadows from mountains and craters near the dark side.
Hi Gneiss, I just took it with my camera. It's a very powerful digital camera with 35x optical zoom and the up to 140x with digital zoom which is where I was at to get the the moons around jupiter. The picture quality is never great with the digital zoom but just to be able to see them is good enough.
Hi, Christer, you are absolutely right, the full moon is a bit of a let down, too much light. All the good stuff is to be found around the terminator, where day meets night, but I just took my shot to have a go at attaching my camera body to the scopean try prime focus photography.
Yes, it's really quite impressive what you can do with digital cameras these days... I keep saying I'll invest in a decent camera but I always seem to get distracted by other things that I want more - one day!
Yes John, it absolutely does give more character when you have a bit of the moon dark, and the rest gets the shadows from a side light to make mountains and craters stick out. Your photo is good, and you don't have much choice since the moon happen to be full, or thereabout, at the moment. I see that you have an EOS 450D. How do you attach it to the telescope? Since I can't see any lens in the EXIF, I assume that you just attach the camera house directly to the scope? Here's another I took when the moon was just a few days from full. This is about the last chance before it gets "smoothen out" and dull. It still has the character and "life". It's quite nice that you get so (relatively) much details with just a regular camera with a 300 mm lens.
For more unusual techniques for photographing the moon.. This was taken using an oscilloscope camera to photograph a security camera screen with the security camera pointed at the moon Obviously it was just for fun but it shows up a fair amount of detail.
Just a thought, and excuse my ignorance, but has anyone ever managed to photograph the lunar landing sites and show the images. Surely there are telescopes, cameras and lenses available these days that will do that. It would settle once-and-for-all the controversy about whether the moon-landings were faked. On the other hand, if it could have been done, then it would have by now...
