Astrophotography!

[the_wasd_man]

Well, this:http://www.treksf.com/forums/index.php?topic=1735.0 topic sorta inspired me to make a topic to post some nice astrophotography pics. I saw that a lot of you seem interested by astronomy, so I figured: "eh, why not?". So to start off, I'll show you some pictures we (by we I mean me and  an old astronomy club I was in) took a few years back:

The moon, the classic. Easy to find in the sky, but really spectacular through a telescope. You can see all the neat detail that is lost to the un-aided eye.



The Pleiads. The Pleiads are a cluster of stars, visible to the naked eye. They have a bluish glow to them, and are very pretty. Unfortunately we didn't take color pictures, but it still turned out nice.



That one had a lot of grain on it... yes, that's right, we developed our pictures ourselves. No fancy digital cameras, we had a darkroom. And I got high on the chemicals.  ::)

...

ok, not really.

Anyways, that was a few years ago, at my old school. Unfortunately my new school has nothing resembling an astronomy club, so I've had to manage by myself. Only recently did I buy a new scope, something affordable (good telescopes can cost in the thousands of dollars). Until a few days ago I'd never tried to take pictures with it. My first attempt was with the recent Lunar eclipse. It came out pretty good, but the lens was visible.



Tonight the skies were clear, so I decided to take my scope out (something I unfortunately rarely do these days). I was hoping to look at Saturn, but it was getting really cold, so I decided to go for the easiest option and go for the Moon... again:



Now, I sized it down because the quality was pretty bad, that's the camera's fault, can't do much for it. Comparing them the quality on the first one looks better... hmph. I might of used a different setting, I should look into that.Anyways I think I'll be getting an adapter for my camera, it might make things easier. :)

Well, if/when I ever take more pics I'll post them here. And I think I still have a few more pictures from "the good 'ol days" lying around somewhere.

And hey, if you guys have pics yourselves post them here! I'd love to see them!

[Bryancd]

Nice! I posted a pic I took of Saturn in this thread:
http://www.treksf.com/forums/index.php?topic=1030.0
I did this by sticking my digital camera apature directly on my eye piece! I have an Orion SkyQuest 8" Dobsonian.

[Rico]

Very cool shots guys.  Thanks for sharing.  Got to try to take some shots through my scope - if/when the weather improves here.

[Chief]

Of course we are interested in astronomy! That is a very impressive shot of the moon. Thanks for sharing it!

[Movie Sean]

I took an astro class last year.  I was bummed we were supposed to get to play with some photography and every night we had lab it wasn't clear enough.

:(

The moon looks great.

[Darkmolerman]

Nice Pics