Michael Rochfort (michael@cs.nsw.gov.au)
16 July 2000
I took this picture during the lunar eclipse of 16 July 2000. (Eastern Australian time). I used a Nikon FM10 camera body attached to the eyepiece of my ETX 90ec, Agfa 100 colour negative film and a 20 second exposure. The ETX was only roughly polar aligned, and placed on the ground using the table-top legs. I used the "hat trick" method of controlling the exposure. I used only the standard hand controller. I am actually surprised that the drive tracked so well under these circumstances. Michael Rochfort http://members.netro.com.au/~michael/astro/astro.htm
John Hanover (johnh@bdg8.niddk.nih.gov)
20 January 2000
Montage of photos taken with the ETX-125EC at prime focus (1900mm) with a Pentax SLR of the late stages of the 1/20/00 Eclipse. Exposures were 1/125 second.
Eric Jacobsen (isochronos@yahoo.com)
20 January 2000
Data: ETX-125EC prime focus adapter with one tube. Canon FTb slr with Fuji 800 NHG II. exposure about 8 sec. Mirror locked up and used the "hat trick" for exposure. Photo enhanced in photoshop to increase contrast. The film is a medium contrast film intended for weddings. It is not the best for astro photos but was the only high speed film I had on hand. Location Yorba Linda California. It was cloudy most of the time but cleared up for about 10 minutes during totality. I tried longer exposures but there was some bluring probably from tracking error. I used the standard controller and did not correct for lunar tracking rate. It is only my second attempt at photographing the moon.
Stephen Pitt (lthuedk@pe.net)
20 January 2000
I have attached an image file of the moon taken with my ETX (guided), with the camera at prime focus, using Fuji 800 Superia, for approximately 15-20 seconds. The clouds were frustrating, and, from my several viewing locations that night, offered but few opportunities to collect images.
Mike Murphy (amurphy@idworld.net)
20 January 2000
I've attached a picture I took this year thru my new ETX-125. Hopefully you might want to post it on your web site. Enjoy. This was my first attempt at using the ETX for Astrophotography. ETX-125 w/T-Adapter, Olympus Mount, 1/125 - Kodak Royal Gold 200, San Antonio, Texas - 8:15 PM Really enjoy your Web Site
Barnes & Davis (jbnjenny@io.com)
20 January 2000
We had alot of fun last Thursday in Central Texas. The local astronomy store hosts an informal star party every week and did a good job of letting people know about the eclipse. About 30 cars showed up at the parking lot and we had about 4 small scopes setup. Started out with high cirus clouds that disappeared at totality. It was pretty cold for us Texans (about 40F) so I don't know how many people were in those cars, they never got out!
Pauli Komi (pkomi@cc.hut.fi)
I'm a student from Finland intrested in astrophotography. I also happen to own an ETX. I've used it to take some photos of the sun (solar eclipse in Europe this summer) and the moon. In the morning of January 21st I managed to shoot couple of pictures of the lunar eclipse in Helsinki (the Capital of Finland). The pictures can be seen in my home pages www.hut.fi/~pkomi. The link straight to the pictures is www.hut.fi/~pkomi/taivas.html. The last three as you can easily see are from the actual eclipse. Two last ones are taken through ETX. I'm sorry the pages are still only in Finnish, but I'm working on the English version too. Keep up the good work with your pages!
Tracy Miller (hi_bandwidth@yahoo.com)
20 January 2000
I have attached a zip file containing the photo's I took of the eclipse using the following equipment: Meade ETX-90EC with 26mm EP Canon PowerShot A50 Digital Camera (held by hand over EP) Location: Nashville, TN USA Conditions: Clear, ~21 degrees F, wind chill ~0 degrees F Time: Observing ranged from 9:00pm CST to 1:00am CST I must first say that this event was magnificent! It was the first total lunar eclipse I've witnessed, and I managed to view it in it's entirety up until 11:00pm, at which time the bone-chilling cold took it's toll, and my ETX issued a "motor drive failure" message. I powered it off, and switched to manual usage, however it wasn't long before the CCD on my digital camera got too cold as well. My body was about to issue a "failure" message of it's own, so I decided to pack up and head back to the house. I did manage to sneak in a few more snapshots from my patio after letting my equipment warm up a bit. Some of the pics came out a bit on the poor side, especially since I was hand-holding the digital camera, and also due to the fact that this was my very first attempt at astrophotography. But overall, I was quite impressed with the results. Minor editing was performed with Adobe Photoshop 5.5, but was limited to brightness and contrast adjustments, and light usage of the sharpen filter. The Moon in totality reminded me of an orb glowing from the inside. It wasn't blood red, but more of a soft, glowing, copper color. Given a stable camera mount, and some more conducive weather, I feel that the ETX is quite capable of some remarkable astrophotography. I look forward to trying my hand at this in the near future (after I un-thaw!) All of Tracy's photos are available at regulus.dhs.org/astronomy/astrophotography/lunar/eclipse ---- My apologies, as I have realized that the timestamps on my eclipse pics were off by one hour. My camera was still set to daylight savings time, thus the pics are all stamped an hour ahead of actual times.
Vicky Hodges (vicky@bookcase.com)
20 January 2000
Equipment: ETX-90EC, T-Adapter, Olympus OM-10, Fuji 400, 2 Second Exposure Location: Columbia, MD Time: 2304 EST
Lionel Remigio (lremigio@commsearch.com)
20 January 2000
I'm sending my first Moon picture ( really my first astrophoto) since I got the EXT and the LX-200 in December. This was the eclipse day in Miami. Picture was processed using Photodraw....and is almost identical to the original. I used Fuji film 1600 ASA and shoot with a 125 setings. I use ETX and a Canon EOS Rebel 2000 attached to the ETX using the Camera Adapter from Scopetronix....( the one you can place in the thread like an eye piece). To be honest...I guess to be my first time is really good. I took the pictures to Eckerd Drgugs to be processed and the ladies working in the lab told me...Lionel...." we processed today 27 diferent rolls from different guys and this is the best ones we seen".......wow..... The pic attached is in JPG format. As you can see.....this astronomy stuff is highly addictive!!!!!