Thanks for the pictures very cool:-)
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Those are really cool pictures. I love to watch the stars when I'm out in the country away from the city lights. Never viewed them through a telescope though. Thanks for sharing! :-)
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Nice work Adam. Love to see these photos, Thanks for sharing !
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Great photos! Keep them coming:-)
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Very cool and a great way to combine your passions. As the kids like to say… "I am going to subscribe to this one. :-)

Truly splendid, thanks for taking the time to do the publishing as well. :yu
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This takes good equipment, patience and an incredible amount of know how to capture images like these. I am completely envious. Looking thru your gallery, the moon shot is spectaclular too. Good stuff.

Larry
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that is some nice pics. i have been wanting to get it to this, i did not need to see it. Its just more more push to the edge
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For anyone considering a telescope, the technology has come so far that even many of the base models are automated in a way that they tell you where to point. Great for finding the deeper sky objects that I photograph.

But I should let you know that the photo's I took are very long exposures, so that is not what you see when you look through the eyepiece.

You mostly see either a little fuzz with shape or just a bit of shadows. Planets, on the other hand are amazing. With Saturn you can see it's rings easily and usually at least 3 moons. Jupiter is even more amazing. You can see banding on the planet and many moons as well.

Also, a fun fact... Andromeda is one of our neighboring galaxies and makes a great target for binoculars. It rises earlier and earlier as the year goes on. Now, it rises from the North East and at about midnight about 45 degrees in the sky due east. If you know where Polaris [North Star]is, look right. Polaris will be the base of an arrow pointing directly at Andromeda.

Now the fun part... Andromeda is huge. If you could see it in perfectly dark skies, it would be the size of 5 moons next to each other. I happened to be in very dark skies in New York State, and I saw Andromeda with my naked eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and had to Google it as soon as I came home.

That and the fact that it is the International Year of Astronomy were the reasons that pushed me over the edge. Like cigars, it's a slope of it's own.
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Very nice pics...thanks for sharing.

I got into astronomy around the age of 12...purchased a Meade 8800 Newtonion. Luckily I had very dark skys growing up in rural PA...so I would sit back and enjoy the skys all the while puffing away on Swisher Sweets. :-) Great times...thanks for jogging my memory.
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Those are cool. I used to have a cheap telescope years ago, but could never see anything like that.
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Awesome stuff.
:-)
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Very cool pictures :-)

Would be nice to see some more when you have time. Even the 'bad' ones.
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Nice shots!
Back in my photog days, I use to really enjoy long exposure night shots. It wasa always thrilling to see what actually showed up on the film. Of course, that was back in the day when we used film, not digital stuff.
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You want more you got more! Two more of my better shots.... They can be seen in my gallery as well.

The Great Cluster in Hercules - M13
Image

The Dumbell Nebula
Image
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Don't let Richard fool you. I've seen some of his nighttime photos.

(He won't be able to stand it and will post them here eventually. :-))
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I'd like to see them. I'm amazed at what can be pulled of with a little or a lot of effort.
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Always been fascinated with space photography! Thanks so much for sharing. Questions - you stated that you have several exposures. What determines your exposure times and the amount of? Also is there a correction in the scope between exposures - or is the distance between points A and B so great that none are required.


Ron
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Great Photos!

Thanks for sharing:-)
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Good questions... The exposure length is determined by the brightness of the object. That said, light pollution can play a big factor in determining exposure length. The more light pollution, the shorter the exposures have to be otherwise the image gets overexposed. It's really a battle finding the sweet spot, but you can use the histogram on the camera to give you an idea.

As for correction, the scope itself tracks the object with its built in motor. This tracking is good enough for visual observing or short exposure photo's, but not for long exposure photography. For long exposures, I use another telescope mounted on my primary scope. This scope has a second camera which locks onto a star and sends corrections to the mount as the scope moves.

Only five years ago, this process was completely manual meaning you had to watch the same star through your telescope while making the corrections yourself. I've said it a few times already, but the technology is amazing.
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nice work!
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