New Images

These are the latest submissions from the imaging members of the NexStar E-Group

Mars pictures taken with a NexStar 11 GPS using eyepiece projection into a ToUcam Pro with modified firmware. Recording software was K3CCD. Processing was done first in K3CCD into Fits files which were merged in Registax. After wavelet processing they were further improved in Photoshop.

Mosaic of Orion Nebula, which is a much nicer image. The 7 images of this mosaic were taken on the 24th. Dec. If you wish you may also include my last Saturn image with 3 moons. Image taken on the 28th. Dec

M42 . It was shot in Houston, using a Nexstar11 Gps, connected to a 32mm Tele Vu eyepiece, for an exposure of 8 seconds, in a Nikon CoolPix 4500.

Here's a shot of Mars, done thru a 6mm Radian Eyepiece, connected to a Nexstar 11 via a Nikon CoolPix 4500. Exposure was 1/4 of a second

HereII caught this image of M42 (I know, another darn M42 image) . It turned out good I thought. I combined the images on the fly with Autostar DSI software, used Meade DSI for image, and N11gps on APT wedge polar aligned. Seeing was a 7 at first, then got crappy, around a 4. I used Photoshop 8 CS to merge rgb images, and process further and some of my first images of the moon and Jupiter, using my N11gps and the Meade DSI. Images were stacked using Autostar suite, fits files, then levels adjusted using Photoshop 8 CS

I've finally gotten around to processing the Blackeye Galaxy image I took last month. It looks OK on my notebook's monitor so hopefully it isn't too bad on "real" monitors. I really thought I was doneimaging with the N5i and then testing was required so I pulled it out and you know what? I still really like it a lot better than theASGT. So maybe the ASGT is technically "better" for imaging, but there are trade offs. The size and ease of use of the N5i makes ita keeper, no matter what

This is my first attempt and imaging M42 or any other deep space object aside form stars. This is a single 20 second exposure at 1600 ISO using a Canon 20D SLR mounted prime focus on a NexStar 5.

This is my first attempt to use my new Canon 20Da with my Nexstar 8i SE. I took ten exposures, all but three of which show some trailing, and just chose the best one and cropped it to 1600x1200 (to fit my desktop). The only other processing was to shift the blackpoint to neutralize the light pollution here in the SF Bay Area. Air temp was 50F (10C), and both 'scope and camera were fully acclimated. Since I'm running in alt/az mode, I limited the exposures to ten seconds to avoid field rotation.

There are my latest pictures, taken since February from now. All these pics were taken with the following configuration : NexStar 5, flip-mirror, barlow 2x, UVb-IRb filter and Vesta Pro webcam (images stacked with Registax v3), under an urban sky. Except "lune220305" which was taken at prime focus with an Olympus OM2n SLR camera (not digital camera)

Another 300D/FSQ image from calstar... Halpha filtered... needs more exposure - only 240s x 6.This was taken on the first night.. while waiting for orion to rise. More of a 'test' shot than anything. A bit on the red side, but the greyscale version is even thinner

entered it into the SCT Imaging contest and managed to pull
2nd prize in the solar system objects/webcam category

I finally got around to using my NexStar 5 last week for real imaging and Iwas able to capture a decent mosaic of the moon on the 16th. (There were a couple of fatal flaws in the originals that PSP and I covered up.)I used a Philips Toucam, K3CCDTools (capture), Registax 2 (align, wavelets), Astrostitch (mosaic), PaintShop Pro 8 (final image abuse). There were 20 individual images using 14-20 frames from collections of about 60 frames/sequence.

I imaged Jupiter for the first time last night with my 8i. I've owned the scope since August, and have been pleased with it every time I've used it.

First attempts at astrophotography. both were taken on July 14th, 2005 w/ an N8,neximage, using registax.

I recently got a Nikon D100 DSLR camera and have now joined the ranks of digital astrophotographers. Did some experimenting with it during new moon weekend in and it seems that 7-8 minutes is a pretty good exposure time for it. Still have a bit to learn about the post-processing and getting the planet images focused but at least the feedback is a lot faster with digital.

The Jupiter and Saturn pics are the results of my first experiments with stacking photos in Photoshop. I like the Jupiter because I was able to bring out the Great Red Spot without losing Ganymede which was floating in space just to the left of the planet. M42 is a single 30-second exposure taken from my back yard here in Los Angeles. I thought I'd see more of the LA light pollution than it does.

M5 and M20 were taken out in the dark skies of the Mojave Desert. M5 was a 30 second unguided exposure. M20 was an 8 minute manually guided exposure. The one thing that really amazes me is that my Nexstar 11 seems to have much better tracking performance with the two extra pounds of camera equipment hanging on the end of it that with just a regular eyepiece. I haven't had any need at all for counterbalances. Hope that continues to be true as I do more with it.

I was fortunate and had clear skies for the second night in a row andanother attempt at using the Astronomik 14nm Ha filter on the ST-8. Here's
M16 in Ha. I'll add the color frames tonight in spite of it being 96F today. Flats and darks, sharpening in Astroart 2.0, mild noise removal and conversion to jpeg in Photoshop CS . This is the full size image, 1530x1020, 207K. Imaged through the Tak FS-78, guided by the NS11. PEC enabled through PECTool.

The M42 pictures was taken under fairly clear skies. 10 shots of 8 sec exposures were stacked using K3ccD tools and processed using photoshop. The moon pictures (along side w/ the M42 picture) was taken w/ my N114 GT telescope and my canon S400 camera. The moon pictures was processed slightly in photoshop. The same thing for the last moon picture i'm attaching. Take care, and thanks for the advice you gave me earlier on the tracking.

Here is my latest image. I know its a bit late and I could email it earlier, but I was busy last months. Maybe you can add it to the gallery, a very nice M104 with the N5i.

The first is M42 Taken with the 9..25 GPS and a canon digital rebel. This is one exposure set at 1 minute on bulb setting. Autoguided with SBIG STV. The second was taken at the great lakes star gaze this september.

I set up for imaging with my NexStar 9.25" GPS, and then the clouds arrived along with a fairly stiff breeze. But I did manage to
get a few minutes of data on M33 in a sucker hole. Then I shot Mars before the clouds got thick again.