Weasner's Meade ETX Guest Gallery

GUEST PLANETARY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Last updated: 30 April 2009

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: Erwin Matys (erwin@matys.at) [30 Apr 09]
With our last image we took our trusted ETX-90 to its limits. on april 4th 2009 the air was especially calm and allowed an attempt to bring out detail on the ring planet. visible are the northern and southern equatorial band as well as the moons Titan (right, below) and Rhea (right, just above the ring). although the ring's inclination is very low now, there is still a hint of the Cassini divison. the image was shot with an ETX-90 Mak, ToUCam pro, IR-UV cut filter, 2x barlow, f=2500mm f/28, 1500x 1/25sec exposure on 4-4-09 from lower austria. more of our ETX images can be found at: http://www.project-nightflight.net. clear skies!

Submitted by: Nohr Tillman (ntillm01@yahoo.com) [20 Apr 09]
ETX-125 UHTC 884 tripod Polar align Meade LPI Envisage software raw image. Troy, MI 2009APR04 21:30 ALT 70 AZ 105 Saturn-Rings near edge on.

Submitted by: Rob Roach (rob0260@hotmail.com) [17 Apr 09]
This is my first saturn ever. Etx-80 antares 2x barlow and modified creative labs ultra webcam. Processing done with registax v4 and noiseware. Taken April 14, 2009 from Teulon, Mb., Canada. Picture has been resized.

Submitted by: Dieter Wolf (testdwolf@hotmail.com) [17 Apr 09]
'summer-spring' season in southern Germany (up to 25 deg. C) presented me a nice look to Saturn (0m.6 brightness, 19" diameter, -4 ring angle). Picture 1 - Saturn: 2009-04-11, 23:30 CEST, MEADE ETX-125EC with 2* Barlow, ToUCam pro with 1400 frames out of 2500. Funny - very similar to Stewart's shot three weeks ago (but not so colorful) Picture 2 - Saturn with five to six moons: 2009-04-11, 23:55 CEST, MEADE ETX-125EC, ToUCam pro with 500 frames. You can clearly see five moons, but Mimas - at the edge of the strongly overexposed rings - may be more a matter of 'belief'...if you enlarge the picture, there is a weak, washedout dot exactly where Mimas should be!

How the look of Saturn has changed in the years 2004 to 2009 (ETX-125EC, ToUCam; animated GIF)

Submitted by: Stewart Long (Stewart.Long@bcm-ltd.co.uk) [21 Mar 09]
A rare clear night with great seeing in Rutland, U.K. ETX125 polar mounted, Imaging Source DMK 21AS mono camera with Astronomik LRGB filters in Orion filter wheel. 2x apo barlow. About 800 frames of each colour plus luminance stacked in Registax. The composite was assembled in Photoshop CS3 and an overexposed version pasted in to show moons. Left to right: Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Titan. I am amazed how good this little 5 inch scope is when the seeing is on my side.

Submitted by: Dieter Wolf (Dieter.Wolf@DNSint.com) [3 Mar 09]
hope you're back well from your Oracle ground - interesting to see things going on. After a longer period of inactivity please find attached a review of my actual Venus observations. Venus, with -4m.6 maximum brightness, is an easy object even for daylight observation now - if you know where to find it. I used Saturday's clear weather conditions and the three days old Moon as a 'guide' and could see Venus in sunlit sky. It took me just a minute to find the bright whiteish twinkling planet a few degrees west of the 'creamy' Moon. 2009-02-28, 13:40 CET; PANASONIC Lumix DMC-FZ30, 185mm, ISO 80, f/5.6, 1/320s

In the evening, the 'couple' - overexposed to show 'earthlight' - looked like this through some clouds 2009-02-28, 18:40 CET; SAMSUNG GX-1L, 185mm, ISO 400, f/4.5, 1.5s]

A few days before I wondered how good you could catch the crescent of Venus with DSLR only (no telescope) and did the following 2009-02-25, 19:05 CET; SAMSUNG GX-1l, 1500mm, ISO 200, f/16, 1/500s] Better than I had expected.

Then - to complete it - I used my telescope. 2009-02-28, 17:55; MEADE ETX-125EC, ToUCam pro at prime focus, 400 frames 1/500s each, drizzle x2 So, if anyone of you finds time and clear skies, in the evening or throughout the day - have a look at Venus with your naked eyes, binoculars, a phototele or a telescope. Venus will become even more interesting the next days as the crescent gets thinner but larger...