Weasner's Meade ETX Guest Gallery

GUEST DEEPSKY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Last updated: 30 June 2008

Some ETX users have sent me examples of their astrophotography. If you have some examples you would like included here please send me a description of how you made the astrophotos and a copy of the images as GIF or JPEG files (due to internet email gateway issues, please send only one image file per message). Send to etx@me.com. Alternatively, if you have created your own web page with your examples please let me know and I'll include a link to your site. You will also find astrophotography examples on the Helpful Information - Astrophotography page.

Submitted by: Steve Hollar (phoneman@hollar.com) [30 Jun 08]
I took this last night, 6/28/08, with my ETX 70. The seeing was not all that great with some haze. I've never been able to spot the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), but, I've gotten pretty good with my Polar Alignment, so, just let the scope find it. I could not see it in the eyepiece, but, when I did a 15 second preview on Autostar, there it was. This was a series of 38 exposures of 15 seconds each using the basic Meade DSI. I decided to get brave and try some full one minute exposures. Did a preview and it looked real good. I didn't have any darks for that time, so, as I reached for my lens cap to shoot some darks, I managed to kick one of the tripod legs. Of course the alignment was ruined. It was just too late to start over, so, that experiment will have to wait for another night. Hope you enjoy. Naturally, what I'm sending you is in JPG, but, the original is BMP. Better detail, but, much too big to send by email.

Submitted by: Stephan Krah (stephan.krah@t-online.de) [17 May 08]
The last one I took was two days ago. I shot M64 known as the Black Eye Galaxy. When you take a look at the result, its very obvious. I took 130 30s exposures and managed to select 10 good ones due to no perfect polar alignment. Stacked with Giotto and postprocessed with paint shop pro. A very strange object. I hope you find it worth to be posted. Configuration: ETX125 with MEADE DSI, 0.5 focal reducer and IR blocker.

Submitted by: Stephan Krah (stephan.krah@t-online.de) [14 May 08]
there have been very clear nights the last two weeks in Germany. I used them for 3 objects to shoot. Attached you find M106. This galaxy is rather bright, although its not easy to work out some details. But I managed to make visible the spiral arms even, with a dustband on the right arm. I took 15 of 200 shots with 30s Exposure each on my ETX125. Equiped with MEADE DSI and 0.5 focal reducer, IR blocker. Stacked with Giotto and enhanced with Paintshop pro. Im sorry about your equipment loss. Be encouraged to keep up the excellent work you do for amateur astronomy.

here comes the the result of the shots after M106. Just for fun I took another 50 shots 20s exposure of M13. Always a rewarding object. 10 hand selected photos were stacked with Giotto and little enhanced and sharpened with paintshop pro. I hope you like it and find ist worth to be posted. Configuration: ETX125 with MEADE DSI 0.5 Focal reducer and IR blocker.

Submitted by: Harel Boren (harel.boren@portalium.com) [7 Apr 08]
Once again excellent, excellent site! Here's the first image I'm somewhat satisfied from though clearly a long way still to go.. Seems that getting reasonable images from a polar aligned ETX-125 is a challenge in its own right. This one is M13 taken: ETX 125 PE, polar aligned, auto guided using DSI I; image taken by the same DSI I, at F/5 (i.e. using a focal reducer of FL0.33). Total exposure time 14min36sec. Stacking done real time using Envisage. Some processing applied (decreased some red; sharpening, contrast, brightness). I traveled all the way to the Golan Heights to take this one, in quite freezing cold, and some light wind but it was worth the 6 hour drive. I'll be working more on M13 till I get better results and you'll sure know when that happens. You might find this publishable and that'd be great.

Submitted by: Maurice Gavin (mgavin@ntlworld.com) [25 Mar 08]
Here, for possible use on your reader's gallery, is a mosaic attached of recent deepsky objects via the mighty ETX-70 plus SX CCD in exposures of 2-10min with the scope piggybacked on my LX200. More pix at www.astroman.fsnet.co.uk/etx70mg.htm

Submitted by: Steve Hollar (phoneman@hollar.com) [25 Mar 08]
I just wanted to share this with everyone. I've been using my ETX-60AT in the usual Alt/Az configuration for about a year. I just bought a Meade 884 Field Tripod specifically to try Polar Alignment. I set up my scope in the driveway of my house. We are on the side of a hill with the upslope to the North, North/East. Unfortunately we also have some large trees blocking a good amount of sky. Doubly unfortunate, one tree blocks my view of Polaris. My first night out, last night, I did the very basics. I have to walk up our driveway until I see Polaris. I then walk sideways back down to the scope, keeping my eye on the spot where I estimate Polaris is behind the tree. Using this estimate I simply turned the North leg of the tripod in that direction, then raised the Latitude Control Bar to my latitude, with the scope set to 90 degrees. Of course all of this was approximate. I used the Orion Nebula for my first subject. Using the Tonight's Best feature of my Autostar 484, I let it do the slewing. I still had to use the Go To feature, but, it was found in just one pass. After centering, I was blown away at how steady the image was. I ended up doing 25 eight second exposures and 65 fifteen second exposures with my DSI. I quit when the moon was just washing things out too much. Not once did I have to readjust the image. Not only would I have had to recenter many times in Alt/Az, it would have been impossible to do fifteen second exposures and very ify to do even eight second. I just wanted to share this for those who have been thinking about taking the plunge to Polar Alignment. All I can say is do it. You won't be dissatisfied. I've included the photo of the Orion Nebula. Not too darned bad for a first try. Still got a lot of post processing to learn.

Submitted by: Stephan Krah (stephan.krah@t-online.de) [11 Feb 08]
after a long period of cloudy skies an bad seeing conditions in Germany, we had clear skies the last days. Attached you find the result of last weeks session. M1, the crab nebular. 260 shots with 30s exposure each. 40 hand selected and then stacked with GIOTTO. The result was strongly enhanced in color and contrast because the object is rather faint. Configuration: ETX 125 with meade DSI 1, IR Filter and 0.5 focal reducer I hope you like the result. Thanks for your great site and your support of amateur astronomy. Best regards from Germany