Weasner's Meade ETX Guest Gallery

GUEST PLANETARY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

Last updated: 16 November 2010

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: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [16 Nov 10]
Here are two images of Jupiter with the ETX-90 from Nov 12.

Submitted by: Sven-Ove Auno (so.m.auno@bredband.net) [12 Nov 10]
I'm sending you a picture of Venus. It was taken from my balcony in the centre of Norrkoping, Sweden about 15 minutes before sunrise on Sunday the 7th of November. I have used Registax 5 to stack 62 frames of video. I have also made some small enhancements to the picture using Photoshop (cropping, sharpness, contrast 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. I hope you will find the picture interesting enough to post it on your web-site.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [8 Nov 10]
Here is Jupiter from last night Nov 5 at 0727UT with the ETX-90 and 2xbarlow. It is a mosaic of three images to get the widely spread out Galilean satellites in the shot.
Click image for full-size version
Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [27 Oct 10]
Last night I imaged Jupiter with the ETX-90 as clouds about.

Here is Jupiter tonight, Oct 27 at 0713UT with the ETX-90/RA and 2xbarlow, upsampled 150% in size.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [22 Oct 10]
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 Jupiter with the ETX-90. I used a 2xbarlow on the ETX for Jupiter. 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.

here is Jupiter from earlier this evening, one at f/13.8 the other with the 2xbarlow.

Submitted by: Robert Amdahl (rramdahl@yahoo.com) [22 Oct 10]
I haven't contributed anything for awhile because I haven't been out with the scope that much lately. But I had it out last week and took some images of Jupiter and thought that you might find this worthwhile for your site. I also got some new toys to play with so I wanted to check them out. First, I bought a Celestron NexImage to supplement my LPI. I am quite happy with the sensitivity of the ccd chip on the NexImage vs. the LPI and I think the results show the difference. Also, I bought an EZ-Focus on ebay and this does seem to help with focusing. I would highly recommend both these products for anyone interested in Lunar/Planetary imaging with the ETX. This image is from a one minute avi video that I took on 10/14/10 with the Meade ETX 125PE and a 2X Barlow. I used Registax for the stacking and initial processing. I then did some further processing in Photoshop which included enlarging the image by 50%. I hope that you think it is acceptable for your site and thank you again for the site, we would be lost without it.

Submitted by: Maurice Collins (mauricejscollins@hotmail.com) [18 Oct 10]
After the Moon went back into cloud I went after Jupiter which I had more success I think. Imaged at f/10 (1250mm). Jupiter processed with Registax 5 and CS4. This was all around 1am this morning Oct 17. (1146 to 1201UT Oct 16)

Submitted by: Nohr Tillman (ntillm01@yahoo.com) [10 Oct 10]
Jupiter season is being good to me this year. ETX-90, LPI, no barlow. This is the result of 43 images Aligned and Combined in Meade Envisage. White and Black balance adjusted with 3 clicks of Shadow Enhance to bring out the moons. Io is on the right, Ganymede on the left. 2010OCT07 22:05 EDT 02:05 UTC

Another one from the same night. ETX-90, LPI, 2X Barlow. 43 images Aligned and Combined with Meade Envisage, EdgeEnhancedHard filter after white and black balance adjustments for the best contrast. 2010OCT07 22:32 EDT 02:32 UTC Io is on the right and the Great Red Spot are visible.

ETX-90 LPI No Barlow. Meade Envisage Align and Combine with EdgeEnhanceHard filter and white and black balance for best image. 43 Images at 77% quality. 2010OCT08 22:15 EDT 02:15 UTC Europa (way left) Ganymede (next left) Io (shadow) Callisto (way right)

Submitted by: Nohr Tillman (ntillm01@yahoo.com) [6 Oct 10]
Managed a pretty good image of Jupiter and the GRS from the city sky. The Southern Belt is also clearly gone, making the Spot easier to pick out. About 50 raws at 50% quality were Aligned and Combined in the Meade Envisage software with the EdgeSharpHard filter applied. Balck and White balance was adjusted to keep the histogram as green as possible. Taken with my ETX-90 and LPI with 2X Barlow: 23:30 EDT 3:30 UTC 30SEP-01OCT2010