Weasner's Meade ETX Guest Gallery

GUEST LUNAR ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Last updated: 27 December 2010

Many ETX users have sent 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.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [27 Dec 10]
Here is a section of the lunar southwest terminator from Dec 19 taken with the ETX-90 and 2xbarlow that I have finally processed. It was necessary to convert to BW due to the ghost images in my 2xbarlows with MCT/SCT's that I seem to get with both my telescopes and both my barlows. It was difficult to remove. But I am amazed at the detail of the 3.5" telescope all the same!

Submitted by: Sven-Ove Auno (so.m.auno@bredband.net) [23 Dec 10]
I am sending you a very special picture of the Moon, and wish you and all the visitors to your fantastic web-site A Merry Christmas. Feel free to post the picture on your site if you like it. I read your report from the lunar eclipse, but for me cloudy weather prohibited any observation of the event. Hope I will have more luck next year.

Submitted by: submitter [19 Dec 10]
The weather cleared tonight but I wasn't sure if it would last with clouds around. I used the ETX-90 and got some shots of the Moon, including a few with a 2xbarlow. There was heavy dew out and the sky has cleared up nicely now it is time to turn in.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [20 Nov 10]
Here is the Moon from the last two nights with the ETX-90/RA. We have been getting a lot of clouds so on the 11-day Moon I imaged in twilight, and for the 12-day Moon I imaged in 7 minutes through a gap in the clouds and through thin cloud. For the image last night, Nov 18, I kept the LPI imaging taking uncombined frames, and I panned over the Moon pausing at each section to collect a few frames at a time to avoid blur. I then sorted and stacked what frames I could in Registax and assembled the image with Microsoft ICE.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [16 Nov 10]
Here is the Moon with the ETX-90 from Nov 12.

Submitted by: Mark Mathosian (mmathosian007@roadrunner.com) [12 Nov 10]
Glad to see your website is still up and running and that astro photographers keep sending in images shot with their Meade scopes. Here is a photo I shot last night at about 6:50 p.m. from my driveway in Advance, NC. It was shot through a Meade ETX-90 with a 32mm lens and Scopetronix adapter. Camera was a Sony 7mg digital camera.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [27 Oct 10]
Last night I did a quick afocal shot of the Moonrise with the ETX-90 through steaks of cloud. It looked nice. It was quite interesting watching those cloud bands cross the Moon. That would have been around 0855UT, I think.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [22 Oct 10]
Here is the 11 day old Moon tonight taken at twilight with the ETX-90. It clouded over as soon as it got dark but I got in early before it did. I've taken out the twilight effect by converting the image of the Moon tonight taken with the ETX-90 to black and White. I have also reduce the size to 67% to increase contrast and sharpen it up a little more. I still personally prefer color images of the Moon to mono, but in some cases B&W does show it better.

Tonight I sat out in the freezing cold waiting for clouds to go away, all the while taking images. The clouds cleared about 9pm, and I got this image of the Moon with the ETX-90. The seeing didn't look good but it must have been better than I thought. Or the 3.5" aperture somehow helped, not sure. Perhaps the good optics on the little Maksutov-Cassegrain may have helped too. In any case, here is what I got.

The seeing started off A-V where the Moon was, but much better higher up. Later it had improved enough to image the Moon. I used the Mighty little 3.5" Mak, Meade ETX-90.

Submitted by: Sven-Ove Auno (so.m.auno@bredband.net) [22 Oct 10]
I'm sending you a new picture of the moon (10 days old, waxing gibbous). It was taken from my balcony in the centre of Norrkoping, Sweden at 1825 local daylight saving time on Sunday the 17th of October. I have made some small enhancements to the picture using Photoshop (colour and brightness). My telescope is an ETX-80AT-TC and I have been using a CMOS colour camera (Venus USB2.0 Camera) with 1280x1024 pixels. This time I have managed to focus the telescope better then on earlier occasions. I hope you will find the picture interesting enough to post it on your web-site.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [18 Oct 10]
As I was about to lock-up and go to bed last night I looked out and saw the Moon in the clear. I got the ETX and laptop, then it clouded over. So I waited inside for a bit and then the clouds cleared again. So I quickly setup outside and tried to get some images. I didn't do a very good job as a lot of the frames ended up blurred and out of focus in my rush. Anyway, I've pieced together what I can salvage. Moon mosaic stitched with Microsoft ICE and frames processed with Avistack and Photoshop CS4. This was all around 1am this morning Oct 17. (1146 to 1201UT Oct 16)

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [14 Oct 10]
There was a break in the clouds and showers to get an image of the 3.5 day old Moon tonight with the ETX-90. I also did a bit of visual observing before I noticed the rain spots on the telescope and thought it time to come in. Seeing was about A-IV.

The pesky clouds are still about, but there were some short gaps and thinner spots but managed to get this image of the Moon tonight with the ETX-90.

Submitted by: George Leask (GPLeask@aol.com) [6 Oct 10]
I have a photo of the moon I captured last November. It was taken with a 3" meade, and a 6mm LPI. It was a full moon, but I only got 2/3s of it. What would you do with the photo if I sent it to you? I haven't done anything to the photo, it is how it was after I took it. All the best, George from the Shetland isles, Scotland P.S. An AT 80. Would you say it was taken by me, in the Shetland isles? You might not think it's good enough, but I think it's an ok shot taken by someone in a wheelchair in the snow. Is that photo any good? Sorry for all the emails, it was just you replied to me very fast the first time, then it seemed to stop. Maybe just me being paranoid. I hope the photo looks good on your site. Would you mind sending me the link to your site when you upload it? I'll likely forget to look. Thanks, Mike here: Many site visitors are surprised to learn I do have a life beyond responding to emails. Yes, at times I do respond quickly. Other times, responses can be delayed. As to Site update notifications, if you haven't already read them, please read the Site Guide as well as the Email Etiquette articles (linked on the ETX Site home page). Thanks for understanding.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [30 Sep 10]
Today I processed the first set of images I took on last Full Moon night with the ETX-90/RA. This time I used avistack ver 1.8. The result is better, though it took longer to do. It was also imaged with my old LPI (I have two), but I think the improvement was the better processing. Anyway thought I would share it as I am still blown away by what the small 3.5" telescope can do considering its size!
Click for full-size image
Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [23 Sep 10]
Here is the Full Moon tonight taken with the ETX-90. The seeing was not great, A-IV with haze around the Moon. The boggy lawn makes it difficult to setup the C8 at the moment, so have been using the ETX-90 on the driveway. I can then run both telescope and laptop with their internal battery and not run any mains cords. Only downside is I have to image outside in the cold. But I also did some low power visual observing afterwards.
Click for full-size image
Even with the haze there was some colour getting through from the Moon tonight. Here is a supersaturated colour version of my Full Moon image.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [20 Sep 10]
Last night the clouds parted about 7pm and I whipped out an grabbed some images of the Moon with the ETX-90. The wind was pretty strong and the image quality is not great, but here is the Moon on InOMN (International Observe the Moon Night).
Click image for larger version
Also tonight, Sept 19, there were also some clear breaks in the clouds/storm tonight long enough to get the Moon imaged using the ETX-90. The smaller telescope made it easier so I could move fast if it rained, and there were a few spits as I was packing up but otherwise ok apart from the strong, cold wind. So here is the 10.8 day Moon as seen at around 7:30pm tonight from Palmerston North, NZ.
Click image for larger version
Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [16 Sep 10]
Tonight 2010 September 13, I used my ETX-90/RA to observe the Moon as the conditions were more suited to a fast setup. I also got some images of the Moon with it, including that of a Ghost crater I spotted on the LOLA DEM data http://lpod.wikispaces.com/May+11,+2010. I could see it very clearly visually, but it is not as noticeable in the images I got due to clouds coming over. I was only able to take single shots for the mosaic, but did some stacking with Registax for the Mare Nectaris insert. But it was nice to get the ETX out again, it is still a great telescope to use!
Click image for full-size version
Last night I did some visual observing with the ETX-90/RA (3.5" Mak) again, then decided to get a few images afterwards. So here is a look at the Moon around 9:33 to 9:44 UT on 2010 September 14.
Click image for full-size version
Submitted by: Sven-Ove Auno (so.m.auno@bredband.net) [4 Sep 10]
This time I don't have a question. Instead I'm sending you a picture from my first attempt in astrophotography. My telescope is an ETX-80AT-TC and I have been using a CMOS colour camera (Venus USB2.0 Camera) with 1280x1024 pixels. The attached picture of the moon was taken (in full daylight at 0432 UTC on 1st of September) from my balcony in Norrkoping, Sweden. I have made some small enhancements of the picture using Photoshop. I you look close you may be able to discern the Straight Wall near the terminator a little bit down from the middle off the picture. I think the camera roughly corresponds to a 4 mm eyepiece. I hope you will find the picture interesting enough to post it on your web-site.
Click image for full-size version
Submitted by: jeff MALMROSE (jeff_malmrose@sbcglobal.net) [19 Aug 10]
X and Y on moon with ETX125 and DMK41 camera. Stacked images in Registax 5 and sharped in photoshop.

Submitted by: Robert Amdahl (rramdahl@yahoo.com) [26 Jul 10]
Here's a series of lunar images that I took on 07/04/10 with an ETX 125PE and a LPI. The first is Copernicus without a Barlow. Hope you find this one and the others worthwhile. As always, thanks for your help and your great web site.

Here's the second image. Again it is Copernicus but with a 2X Barlow.

Here's the third image in this set. This is an image of Plato without the Barlow.

Here's the final image from this set. Again it is Plato but with a 2X Barlow. One of my goals is to capture the craterlets within Plato. I'm not there yet but I will keep trying.

Submitted by: jeff MALMROSE (jeff_malmrose@sbcglobal.net) [21 Jul 10]
Moon mosaic shot with DMK camera and ETX125. Mosaic put together in maxim DL. Got entire terminator line.
Click image for full size version