BOBCATH28@msn.com (BOBCATH28) [28 Dec 01]
Here are three images representing my first efforts at lunar imaging!I used a Meade ETX 125 with a Nikon Coolpix 885 digi-cam.It was attached to a 26mm plossl using a Digi-t unit.The manual shutter speed was about 1/15 sec and was 'processed' using Microsoft "Picture-it". Mike here: I did a little "Levels" adjusting to increase the contrast.
PVerandas@aol.com [13 Dec 01]
photos de la lune avec l'ETX 125 EC et la camera Vesta pro
mattcoles72@hotmail.com (Matt Coles) [9 Dec 01]
I woke up morning to see the moon which was a shock really because I hadn't seen it for a long time. So I just got out my ETX 70AT put in a 4mm plossel witha 3X Barlow lense and took some pictures down the eyepiece. I put them into a collage and here they are. I am a 15 year old Boy and is there anyone out there who is my age(or any age) that is intrested in astronomy just email me, please. Thanks!!
rkindelberger@yahoo.com (Rick Kindelberger) [6 Dec 01]
Thanks to you and the info I found on your site I bought a digital camera adapter from Scopetronix and started taking some shots of the moon with my Ricoh 5300 digital camera and the ETX-125. Can't wait to get a camera with long exposure capabilities for some deep sky photos. Thanks for the great site! Keep up the good work.
SonomaPilot@mac.com (Sonomapilot Mike) [28 Nov 01]
Just got my etx-90ra in yesterday (ebay $200 new with warranty), and thought I'd go take a quick look at the moon. Well, a quick look turned into 1 1/2 hours of comparing the 70 to the 90. WOW !!! What a difference. I had a lot of clods and fog rolled in early, but I really like the 90 ! I'll have to wait until this weekend before i can spend anymore time with it, but I managed to get a nice shot of the moon between clouds. 9mm with Olympus D-490zoom digital camera. I adjusted the brightness (camera was set +1--gotta remember to fix that).
marius@nederlandsontwerp.nl (Marius van Leeuwen) [31 Oct 01]
I send you 3 new photo's of the moon taken on oktober 10 2001, at 5 oclock in the morning and a photo of my set-up for my telescoop (etx 90) and camera (sony cybershot 3.1 mega pixel). Photo 1 is Plato and the peaks of the Alpes with the last sunlight of the day. Photo 2 shows Recta Rupes (the wall) witch is white on a moon in last quater and black on first quater. On photo 3 you see the huge crater Clavius (230 km). I use the camera with full zoom (6x), always use the selftimer. In Adobe photoshop I make the contrast and the sharping higher with un sharpmask.
astrosfigato@katamail.com (weega) [29 Oct 01]
I'm Daniele, a young Italian astro-amateur, first of all thanks for your site: it has made me save money in many situations. I've seen your guests' gallery so I've tought to send you one of my Moon's photos made with a Vesta (Philips' webcam) at the prime focus of an ETX90. The final image is given by 15 frames additioned with Astrostack. The 3 craters in the center are (from up to down) "Theophilus", "Cyrillus" and "Catharina", on the right there is "Mare Nectaris". The image, correctly oriented, has been taken from my garden in Monza (a quite big town with an high light pollution) with a stable seeing. Other photos are available at the following links: http://digilander.iol.it/weega/foto/ssolare.htm (planets' photos) http://digilander.iol.it/weega/foto/sole.htm (sun's photos) http://digilander.iol.it/weega/foto/panoramilunari.htm (moon's photos) Thank you again and dark skies.
adriance@swiftkenya.com (Dave Adriance) [29 Oct 01]
Here's my first attempt at "shooting the moon". Took about 18-20 shots, of which 3 or so were acceptable quality. The attached image was taken on October 20 with a ETX-125, handheld Olympus C3030, 40mm SP. Image was sharpened with ThumbsPlus. Keep up the great work.
likwidchz@home.com (Aaron Dayton) [27 Oct 01]
These photos were taken with a Sony-DSC-S30 with auto focus, on a ETX-90EC manually centered autostar off, there was no mount connecting the camera to the telescope all photos were taken by hand and these were the best ones. lenses used 26mm Stock eyepeice, + Celestron 2X barlow model #93506 SV series October 6th 2001 aprox 11:30 pm the 96x in the picture depicts zoom amount neat website by the way
kenariz@juno.com (Ken W Anderson) [10 Oct 01]
Eyepiece projection/25 mm modified achromat/iso 400/ thru my ETX70EC
rs@stepequipment.com (Robert Sharpe) [3 Oct 01]
Thought you might want to see the capabilities of the olympus C3040 digital camera with the etx125. On another note, It was nice being able to slew to the moon, and have it in the eyepiece on the first pass. I have had this scope for 4 months, and this was not possible until I had Dr. Clay perform his magic on the scope recently! October 1, 2001 Telescope Equipment Camera Details ETX-125EC @ Prime focus Olympus C3040Z in manual mode Scopetronix F6.3 focal reducer 3X optical + 2X digital zoomed for focal length of 151mm SAC IV eyepiece projection hardware for Olympus C3040 camera Aperature @ f2.6, 1/800 shutter speed @ 100 ISO, Manual focus, set to infinity, remote control shutter release Digital Enhancements Super High Quality mode @ 2048 x 1536 Contrast / Brightness / Intensity applied in corel photopaint Image resampled @ 800 x 600 for faster downloads
jak9@howintheworld.com (Jak Fearon) [13 Sep 01]
In an effort to take a moment away from the events that took place on the 11th of September in America, I took my ETX-60 outside for a look at the sky that night. Being only the second night I've attempted to do any astrophotography, I was happy to have captured the following image. I'll let it speak for itself, in light of the situation that day. Specs: ETX-60. MA25mm eyepiece. Through-the-lens home-made camera holder. Olympus C-3030 digital camera. F11, 1 second exposure. Full zoom on macro mode. Various Photoshop enhancements, including unsharp mask and level adjust.
wrschmidt01@snet.net (Wayde Schmidt) [08 Sep 01]
Here's my first attempt at capturing a moon shot. I used my baby ETX 70EC, equipped with a Digi-T and 30 mm Plossl from ScopeTronix and an Olympus 2500L digital camera. It's a bit overexposed, but not bad for a first timer....
igrodroch@enlace.net (Ignacio Rodriguez) [31 Aug 01]
Here is a prime focus photography of July full moon taken from my backyard. The set-up and photo data is: ETX-125EC, Olympus OM-1n, Olympus 1-8 focusing screen, FUJI Superia Xtra ISO 400 , 1/1000 sec. The photo was taken with the camera mirror locked up and using the 12 sec timer. Minor adjustments were made using the software from my Canon 640p flatbed scanner. Thanks !!
yann.duchemin@free.fr (Yann Duchemin) [7 Aug 01]
I took this picture on july 31st at prime focus of my ETX-90 (08:00pm UTC). I've used Kodak Gold Ultra for 1/60 sec. After i've just cut arround the moon with Gimp to put a black background.
jmfedriani@supercable.es (Jos Manuel Fedriani) [7 Aug 01]
I love your site!. It's a great source of information for my ETX-125EC. I have been trying some afocal shots with my digital camera (Olympus C860L or D360L for U.S.A.) and I'm surprised by the results of the afocal system. I held the camera by hand and obtained this close-up of the Moon. This image has been extracted from the original 1280 x 960 photo and is unprocessed. You can put it on your guest lunar astrophotography page if you like. Thanks. Photo data: Date / Time: 28-July-2001 / 22:47 (20:47 U.T.) Photographer: Jose Manuel Fedriani Telescope: ETX-125EC + Vixen LV15 eyepiece (127x) Camera: Olympus C860L Exposure (camera info): 1/49 sec at F2.8 (242 ISO) Location: Crdoba, Spain
JPMoonMan59@aol.com (Joseph Powell) [4 Aug 01]
I got the adapter for my digital camera yesterday and had a chance to try it out for the first time ( to bad it was almost full). I only have one eye piece that it fits (26mm). So I used the 26 mm Meade Super Plossl LP and since it was almost full I used an Orion Variable Polarizer and the camera zoomto get this picture of Tycho and Schriller.
d.bauwens@pandora.be (Dirk Bauwens) [31 Jul 01]
Thanks again for your tremendous site! I am really low-end in skywatching, and I remain amazed about the image quality of my small second-hand ETX-90. Yesterday, 29th of july, I took some moonshots just holding my camera in my hand. All were taken through the standard 26 mm Meade eyepiece, since it is the only one I have. I used my digital camera (a Nikon 990) that I held in my hand over the eyepiece. I leaned with my back against a wall to keep the camera as steady as possible. The camera was put on maximal optical zoom and in manual mode 1/60th of a second. The images were modified in Photoshop: some cropping to remove unwanted parts of the moon's surface, some blurring to reduce a "grainy"  original look. Then autocontrast because the image was quite dark. Then I converted the color file to a grayscale file (to reduce the file size). After that I reduced the file to a reasonable "web" size (50-60 kb) To focus well in my case, I discovered a little trick that works out. I am sure some will use this method already but to others it might be useful. 1) While holding the camera with one hand over the eyepiece, I focus (with the autofocus) the camera to the image. The result can still appear blurry on the display of the camera. 2) Then I use my other hand to turn the focus knob of the telescope while watching carefully the display of the camera. For this occasion I put the camera on the highest digital zoom (4X) 3) It becomes then easy to judge the best focus even when the image moves a lot. 4) Then I go back to the highest optical zoom and take my shots. The shots remain quite sharp (also because the speed of the camera is just 1/60th of a second). Visually, I can see more details on the moon than I can capture. I will have to improve my set-up with some other eyepieces and a device to connect the camera to the scope. And maybe a remote control for the camera to really eliminate all shaking. Greetings from Belgium,
JPMoonMan59@aol.com (Joseph Powell) [31 Jul 01]
This is a great site! I E-mailed you a couple months ago but I only had non ETX pictures, so here a picture of the moon I took on 7/28/01 at about 9:25. I used a Meade 26 mm lens and I used a Sony Mavica (MVC-FD73) It has a 10 X zoom this was about 5X. As you can see I'm holding the camera by hand because I couldn't figure out how to attach it to the scope! Until I went to one of the links on your site and found a produced made by Scopetronix that will let me attach the camera right to the eyepiece. I should receive it in a couple of days! Thanks to your great site! :-) I'm a member of Amateur Astronomers Inc. in New Jersey and every 5th week I get to operate our 24 inch reflector telescope for the public. Unfortunately there is way too much light pollution here! I hope putting the info in one spot (below) makes it easier to place it on your web site? And it is at 50% of the actual size. ETX-125 using a Meade super plossl 26 mm, Sony Mavica camera (MVC-FD73) hand held to the eyepiece at about 5X zoom 7-28-01 9:25pm. Of the Mons Piton area I used Corel Photo 10 to flip the image so it looks like it should.
stjeanp@pat-st-jean.com (Patrick St. Jean) [29 Jul 01]
I've been reading your site for a while and just got my ToUCam working right. Here's the results of the first try: ETX-90EC, ToUCam Pro, Steven Mogg's Universal Webcam Adapter. The webcam+adapter was in the standard eyepiece holder. I used Vega to take a 5 second AVI @ 10FPS, then used Astrostack to merge and clean it up.
achernarg@earthlink.net (Jonathan Garrison) [9 Jul 01]
I love your site! It's a great place to learn about what can be done with this marvelous little telescope. I've had my ETX-90 EC since September '99, and have enjoyed every minute of it. I thought you would be interested in some photos I've taken with the scope. [Top to Bottom] 20-January-2000 Nikon FM at Cassegrain focus Kodachrome ISO 200 1/250 sec at f/16 Raleigh, NC Full Moon 20-January-2000 Nikon FM at Cassegrain focus Kodachrome ISO 200 1/500 sec. at f/16 Raleigh, NC Waxing Gibbous Moon 15-January 2000 Nikon FM at Cassegrain focus Kodachrome ISO 200 1/4 sec. at f/16 Chapel Hill, NC Same as above, but with labels.
adampam@i2k.com (Adam Gandolfi) [30 Jun 01]
So how did I do? Please post if you like it. Shot with a Sony DSC-S75, Meade ETX90-RA, 30mm ScopeTronics Possel Eyepiece, Orion Moon Filter, and I used the ScopeTronics Digi-T System to attach the camera to the scope.
ARottal@gmx.de (Arno Rottal) [30 Jun 01]
Here are some photos for your gallery taken with the Etx90Ec and my modified webcam. (I call it my little CCD-cam :o) The photos were my first attempt with the webcam and the Etx. I have to say that I m really satified with the result. The photos were a bit editet with photoshop (only a little unsharpmask). Europe / Austria / Vienna
nolrun@earthlink.net (Jeffrey Kilmer) [25 Jun 01]
I have been trying some afocal shots with an Olympus D-360L digtial camera and my ETX 125. In the first of the two shots I am sending I used a 40 mm plossl and a 2x digital zoom to catch the waning gibbous moon sporting Mare Crisium, Petavius Vendelinus and Lagrenus, as the most defined lunar features. The second photo used a 10mm Vixen Lanthanum with digital camera again in 2x digital zoom to avoid vigenetting. Thanks for the Great Site and the Opportunity to Share our love of the ETX
CJones@online-can.com (Jones, Clive) [13 Jun 01]
I have included some photographs that I hope you will feel that some of them are worthy of inclusion on your website. [Top to bottom] Moon1 and Moon2 - Taken with an ETX125 and a QuickCam pro. Processing is with AstroStack. Moon1 is Afocal and Moon2 is taken at prime focus. These are my first pictures ever with the ETX. May 25th, 2001 Moon3, Moon4, Moon5, Moon6, Moon7 - Taken with an ETX125 and a QuickCam pro. All are prime focus except for Moon7 which is afocal with the 26mm eyepiece. I calculated and added a scale to Moon5 (Sea of Serenity). I am pleased and surprised that the resolution seems to be down to about 2kms. May 29th, 2001 Clive Jones (Winnipeg, MB)
andru@btinternet.com (andrew sprott) [3 Jun 01]
well i finally managed to get a photo of the moon with my digital camera. not quite in focus, but this pic makes fine windows wallpaper. it was taken with a 90ec and a 26mm eyepiece, and a samsung digimax 800k camera.
soehnk@cableregina.com (Keith Soehn) [3 Jun 01]
thought I'd send you a recent moon shot (9:50pm, May 28, 2001) using the ETX-70 with a #124 2x Meade barlow and the MA9mm with a Power Shot S100 DIGITAL ELPH with the lens stopped down 2 stops and full zoom. A friend of mine, Tom did the photography by hand holding the digital camera to the eyepiece and after several shots, we got this pic of the bunch. At this power, it was a bit tricky to get a decent image so he suggests no coffee for at least 2 hours prior to shooting. ;-) The image was then processed in Photoshop. Needless to say I was surprised at the results.
henrykzels@t-online.de (H. Zels) [31 May 01]
please find attached a picture from a part of the moon. Finally i've found the proper distance for mounting my modified terracam (the shorter part of the meade two part - fotoadapter will do)to my etx 90 at prime focus. This is just a quick testpic to show what quality can achieved under average seeing (warm and wobbling air). The picture is a composite from eight single shots taken with the scanfunction from irfanview (www.irfanview.de) and stacked with astrostack. After stacking i used irfanview to double the size of the pic, do some sharpening, adjusted a little the contrast and then reduced the size back to original size.
JACTHEO@aol.com [19 May 01]
Cannot say thank you enough for your website. A true gem and constant source of information and enjoyment. Thought I would forward my first respectable high magnification moon image. Much thanks to you and also the folks at QCUIAG website for inspiration. Post only if you feel it worthy. Moon crater Clavius captured using a modified Kensington webcam (320x240) on an ETX 125 at prime focus.  Captured using Vega 1.2 software (thanks Colin Bownes).  8 avi images stacked in Astrostack, unsharp mask (4), levels adjusted in Photoshop, and a touch of Gaussian blur at the end.
Sonyman026@aol.com [10 May 01]
Taken with meade ETX-70AT with sony 2.1 mega pixel through 20mm super plossl with 2X barlow.
igrodroch@enlace.net (Ignacio Rodriguez) [5 May 01]
Ive been in touch with your incredible site several times a week for 6 months. Ive learned a lot. I have not sent mails or photos for a while but now Im sending something. Last sunday I observed the moon with my ETX125 and a SWA 13.8 plossl. I made an eyepiece projection photo. Exposure time 1/4 sec with the camera in bulb mode and prefired. ( I use a cardboard to cover the scope and a cable release ). I have the basic camera adapter and the ETX camera adapter. I use both adaptors together to increase the power. This is also useful because you can use a 26mm plossl and you will not have problems with the eyepiece touching or interfering with the mirror. The extra section allows to use longer eyepieces and also provide more magnification. In another setup I sometimes add a barlow to the configuration and the power is even greater. It is posible to focus with the ETX 125 however to process get more and more complicated as the projection distance is increased or the barlow is included. At high powers ( >300X ) is difficult to focus using the camera and also the alignment must be very good if you are planning more than 5 sec exposure. Thanks for your great ETX site. I'll send more information about the accesories I've been using.
cbdane@pacbell.net (C. B. Dane) [3 May 01]
Thanks for your site. It has been a great help to a complete newbie like myself. I bought an ETX-70AT last week (first telescope ever) and I have attached my very first photograph, taken this evening. I thought that I would start with something very easy like the moon. I am pleased with the results and I hope that this is a promising indication of things to come with my little 70. I don't think it compares too badly (to my inexperienced eye) with moon shots from the 90s and 125s on your member contribution pages. Here's the setup: - ETX-70AT, standard field tripod, my front sidewalk in Livermore, CA - Nikon Coolpix 990, afocal projection, Meade 18mm WA - f11.1, 1/15s, full zoom (23.4mm), fixed focus at 10m, ISO100 - wired USB shutter remote on Coolpix - sharpness, img adjust, whitebal all set to AUTO - Photoshop autocontrast, unsharp mask, downsample to 640x480 (from 2048x1536) Any helpful comments about my setup would be greatly appreciated!
Taylor Chonis (Etxstargazer@aol.com) [3 May 01]
My name is Taylor CHonis and I am 15 years old. Attatched is a photo of the crater Theophilus. I took it with a QuickCam Express at prime focus with my ETX-90/EC. I fixed up the image a little using Microsoft Picture IT.
clayton.anderson@profilium.com (Clayton Anderson) [3 May 01]
I have included a photo of the moon taken through the ETX-60 in a homemade (bodged-up) mount pointing the Intel Deluxe webcam (640x480) into the Meade MA9mm. Shot from Montreal. Thanks for the excellent webpage.... By the way, they were shot using the Video Capturix 2001 utility, which is very handy fro controlling the webcam and shooting serier of .bmps or .jpgs as well as recording video. Also offers full screen previews.
Chris Icough (spanishchris@hotmail.com) [3 May 01]
Greetings from sunny Spain. My name is Chris Icough and I moved to Spain 4 years ago. I am originally from England and when I moved I sold my telescope - a 250mm Orion Optics reflector. 3 months ago I bought an ETX125 and I have just recently purchased a Pictor 216XT CCD Imager. I have had a lot of problems, but I am just starting to get the hang of it. If anyone is looking to do the same as me then they can gladly Email me at spanishchris@hotmail.com and I may be able to help. I have attached my first images of the moon which you can put on the web site if you like. I wonder if anyone has any tips on long exposure CCD imaging for galaxies with an ETX125?
bareketj@internet-zahav.net (m&j bareket) [11 Apr 01]
Hi, this are some moon shots I took at the beginning of this month: Enjoy and have good skies 'Shalom' Ido. Special thank to weasner the man behind this magical site;) 1) Moon 400asa 25sec. exposure! long exposure to show the ~dark side Note the hidden mountain at the bottom. 2) I also did some new tries with the 6.7 eyepiece. exposure time=4 sec. (the moon was pretty thin)
kardrak@hotmail.com (Eduardo Lopez) [9 Apr 01]
I taken this picture of the Moon with an ETX 90EC and a QuickCam Express camera, eyepiece projection.
neil.fusillo@chatfish.com (Neil R. Fusillo) [6 Apr 01]
This was one of the few shots that seemed to come out without major wind-vibration of the camera mount I've built (back to the drawing board). The LX90 was rock solid... but the camera appears to have wobbled anyway. This was taken with an Olympus C3040-Z camera mounted behind a 40mm series 4000 Meade eyepiece. The original image came out well out of focus, so I've touched this one up with an unsharp mask -- hence the odd colouration around the horizon of the moon.
jay@j-freeman.net (Jay Freeman) [6 Apr 01]
ETX-125EC: I took a few pictures by holding my Olympus C3030 up to the eyepiece.
denis.joye1@libertysurf.fr (Denis JOYE) [28 Mar 01]
Here is a movie of Copernic crater that I made with two pictures taken successively on 4 and 5 march 2001. This movie reveals drastical changes at Copernic appearance in one day interval. These pictures are fragments of larger pictures taken with ETX90-EC and EPSON 3000Z camera at 3X zoom, in afocal mode behind a 25mm SP eyepiece.
a.hatwood@net.ntl.com (a.hatwood) [25 Mar 01]
Here is a shot of Copernicus taken on 4th March 2001. It was taken at prime focus with a QuickCam Web on an ETX 125 EC. I've included an image of my home country, Wales (Left hand side of England!!) to the same scale, to illustrate the size of this hole in the ground!
jquinn@spss.com (Quinn, Jarlath) [15 Mar 01]
I'd like to submit this lunar picture for your consideration. The picture was taken on March 11th from Surrey (UK) using eyepiece projection (26mm) with a Canon Digital Ixus attached to the Scopetronix Digital Camera Adapter. I used a red filter on the eyepiece and reduced the glare via some gamma correction in Paint Shop Pro. By the way, I love the web site.
gerald_wechselberger@at.ibm.com (Gerald Wechselberger) [12 Mar 01]
Please find attached a CCD picture of the Moon from March 6th 2001 9:08pm. Pictured with my Canon G1PowerShot Digitalcamera attached to the ETX 125EC with 26mm eyepiece projection. (The Canon is quite nice for planetary photography but unusable for Deepsky as it does internally automatic some kind of 'Thermal Noise Subtraction' which destroys all long exposures!) Picture has been overworked with Micrografx Publisher. Feel free to put this image on your guest ETX-Page. Thanks for keeping the ETX issue all time update. Its always very interesting and useful!
Dave.Rosenthal@ie-ate.com (Rosenthal, Dave) [12 Mar 01]
I took these 2 shots using an ETX-90EC with a QuickCam Pro 3000 at prime focus. These are raw, unprocessed images. The second shot I added a 2X Tele-Converter before the QC. Mike here: I did a little image sharpening on these.
dlangham@cheqnet.net (David Langham) [12 Mar 01]
Here's my first ever picture taken with my ETX-90EC. I used an Olympus D360-L digital camera with a 26 mm eyepiece. All I did was hold the camera over the eyepiece. I plan on purchasing a Scopetronix afocal camera adapter. Mike here: I did a little cropping and adjusted the sharpness a little bit.
bernard.fournier12@wanadoo.fr (Bernard Fournier) [12 Mar 01]
Send you some others always with Etx125 and Phillips VestaPro at prime focus. I have tried with a Meade #126 Barlow but I can hardly focus due to important air turbulence here so the results are really bad. Tring to figure a way to operate Eyepiece projection I'd like to have some advices about the way to proceed. Any drawing, sketchor photo of the mounting with some references to the used parts would be appreciated. All pics are 640*480 but reduced and compressed.
enrbb@email.msn.com (Bob Bennett) [9 Mar 01]
I purchased a Black ETX 70 AT in January. It and the Autostar 495 has preformed as I would expect a scope of this size to do. Planets are small but clear. It takes the 9mm and the 2X Barlow to make Saturn viewable. I am attaching a Moon shot that I took using a mount I built for $7 with parts from Lowes and Home Depot. The camera is a Casio QV10 and I was using the 9mm MA and the 2X Barlow.
denis.joye1@libertysurf.fr (Denis JOYE) [6 Mar 01]
[Top] here is a picture showing Pythagoras arena in the dark and the top of its peak in the light. I took this picture on 7th january with my ETX90-EC and EPSON PC3000Z digital camera in following circumstances: - zoom set at 3X on EPSON camera - eyepiece projection through a 25 mm super Plssl This picture has been extracted from a larger one (W2500xL1900) and slightly improved using IRIS software (see astroccd.com/terre/buil/us/iris/iris.htm). [Bottom] Just another one, freshly taken this evening between clouds in the same conditions as the preceeding one. -ETX90-EC -EPSON PC3000Z set at Zoom 3X and automatic exposure time -Eyepiece projection through SP 25mm -Improved with IRIS software
bareketj@internet-zahav.net (m&j bareket) [16 Feb 01]
I've redeveloped some of the shots I took few nights ago, the resolts were so beautiful so I scaned them again. Here the results: { IDO }. And thanks to you again -weasner for that great site!!!
bernard.fournier12@wanadoo.fr (Bernard Fournier) [16 Feb 01]
Picture made with an Etx 125 and a Webcam Phillips Vesta Pro at prime focus. Moon is a single picture processed with Photoshop and reduced (it was 640*480). Hope you will like it and feel free to put it in the gallery, I think we can do very much better with this wonderful Etx ! Amicalement Bernard Fournier N 5 09 / W 52 39
nldesign@euronet.nl (Marius van Leeuwen) [16 Feb 01]
Last year I send a shot of the moon taken with my ETX 90 and a Sony Cybershot 3.3 megapixel camera, through the 26mm eye piece. Now I tried a shot with the 40 mm e.p. It is than much easer to get the moon in the center of the l.c.d. screen on the camera, see moon in last quater. I also tried some shot with a 12.4 mm e.p. and full zoom (6x) of the camera. See the Alpes with the Alpes-valey and the crater Ptolemeus. Always used the self-timer of the camera. All shots were made on febrary 1 2001. I have bought a set of color eyepiece filters (yellow, orange and blue) In the hope to get more contast in the parts away from the lunar terminator, but the result were disapointing. On your site I did not found information about the use of color filters in combination with a digital camera. Is there anybody who know more about it? Thanks and kind regards, Marius van Leeuwen the Netherlands Mike here: Check out the Moon Filter comments on the Accessories - Filters page; might be just what you're looking for.
pwjchung@juno.com (Philip W Chung) [13 Feb 01]
Hi, I've been surfing your site for about a few months now and it's been a tremendous help to me. I got my ETX about 2 months ago and decided to give astrophotography a try. I am attaching a photo of the moon that I took that maybe you could include in your guest astrophotography section. Thanks. This is a shot of a full moon through my ETX-90EC at prime focus with a extended photo adaptor for an effective f/16 ratio. The exposure was 1/250 second on Fuji Super HQ 100 speed. I took many shots and experimented with exposures. This shot was underexposed but that brought out better shadow detail and helped cut down the glare. It was scanned and the contrast was adjusted. The critical part was dealing with vibration. I tried to lock up the mirror on my camera but the dec. lock would slip and the moon would slide out of view. So I unlocked the dec. lock and let the scope/camera rest on the ETX base (I even put a piece of cloth under the camera to dampen the vibration). Then I used the polar alignment latitude adjustor to point at the moon. This way the camera rests on the ETX base and reduces vibration even more. That seemed to help a lot.
jjordan475@home.com (Joel Jordan) [10 Feb 01]
This is my very 1st photo of the moon. I am using the EXT90-EC, 26mm EP with ASA200 kodak film at 125th/sec. There was a slight haze from a cloud giving the moon the dark look. I do not have a lunar filter. Would this help in obtaining more detail? I am using a Minolta SRT-201T camera. Joel
bareketj@internet-zahav.net (m&j bareket) [10 Feb 01]
These are new shots I took with my 90mm ETX telescope with 6.7mm eyepiece. I used 400asa film & the exposure time was about 3.5 sec- pretty hard task for the ETX. Thes are one of the best moon shots I took with this scope, proces-only slight unshap masking! p.s-I developed the film a little to much in the lab so the pics are a bit more bright as they should.
KevinTofel@prodigy.net (KC Tofel) [10 Feb 01]
First of all: GREAT SITE! Keep up the good work! After reviewing your site and several others, I purchased an ETX-70AT as my first scope. I wish I could have bought more aperture, but there's always next time. Attached is an pic I grabbed with my 25mm eypiece coupled with the Meade 3x Barlow at my home in Harleysville, PA. I used a 1 MgPixel digital camera (an HP C200) on the lowest exposure setting. The camera was handheld to the eyepiece, which accounts for some image loss. Thanks! Kevin C. Tofel Mike here: I cropped and adjusted the brightness levels somewhat.
neil.fusillo@chatfish.com (Neil R. Fusillo) [7 Feb 01]
This is my first attempt at a moon pic using the standard 26mm Meade eyepiece on a DS127EC reflector (which I love, but which is not on the most stable of all possible mounts). I'm using a Logitech Quickcam Pro, which I will have to modify to remove the focus ring and create some sort of mount for. Currently, this is a hit or miss annoyance of holding the camera up to the eyepiece and hoping I can keep it and the tripod steady enough for a photo. Seems to work one out of 30 tries or so. I've removed the background noise with Photoshop. Mike here: I cropped the image a little bit from the original.
sdbmayfield@blomand.net (Steven Mayfield) [29 Jan 01]
I recently found your site. Clearly it is the most important site on the web. I was inspired to take a few photos of my own. Here is my first attempt at astrophotography. I am using the ETX-60AT. The photo was taken with a masterblaster webcam freehand and cleaned up using picture it express. I am currently working on a "jig" to mount the cam on the scope. I used the 9mm eyepiece with a single shot through my bedroom window hopfully soon I will be taking shots from the outside. No doubt looking through 2 pieces of glass blurred my image. I also built a telescope pier by modifing a couple of plans I saw on your site; saved me a bundle!!
scotexan@home.com (B & L Rodger) [29 Jan 01]
Plese can you post this pic in your "Guest Astrophotography Section" "Moon". They were taken with a DS114EC , 26mm Plossel , using an Olympus D-360L Digital Camera on 2X Zoom. Jan 8th , 2001 from North Fort Worth , Texas
mdr@HONet.com (Michael Rathbun) [19 Jan 01]
I am sufficiently pleased with this one that I have a .BMP of it as Windows wallpaper. Rather than clog your mailbox with this (1280x768), I've put it on a web2.airmail.net/~mdr/IridumSunrise0.jpg web page. Epson PhotoPC 750Z camera, scopetronix camera adaptor, 26mm EP with 2x Barlow. 4 Jan 2001 from a light-polluted back yard in lovely Frisco, TX.
nunosilva2000@yahoo.com.br [16 Jan 01]
[Top] etx-125ec, polar mount with RA motor on, prime focus f/14, 1/15 sec exposure, 400 asa film, camera mirror manually popped up (see http://members.aol.com/comet36/methods/methods.htm#vi Dealing with vibration). [Bottom] etx-125ec, polar mount with RA motor on, 2x barlow (2.4x in the etx) f/34, 1 sec exposure, 400 asa film, black card technique.
willkim@tesco.net (William Webb) [16 Jan 01]
your ETX site is indeed Mighty. Having seen and read your pieces about digital photography through the ETX I thought I'd give it a go, and here is an early result. I was amazed! Here are the Details: Date: 16 Jan 2001 Time: 07:51 GMT Location: Central London, UK Scope: ETX 90 EC Method: Eyepiece Projection Eyepiece: 26mm Camera: Canon Digital Ixus The camera was hand held, and the exposure was setting was at -1. The image was then procesed usuing Photoshop 5.5 on an imac. once again, thanks very much for your inspirational site.
bareketj@internet-zahav.net (m&j bareket) [16 Jan 01]
Click for larger version.
This month is the Wolf moon, in the periods between the clouds thick muff I could catch some exciting lunar shots,
nunosilva2000@yahoo.com.br (Nuno Miguel de Freitas Silva) [13 Jan 01]
I'm from Portugal and my age is 18.Ive been taking photos over the moon, planets and deepsky since i own my etx-125ec which i would like to show you (and if possible be shown on you wonderful site). As i havent much experience with long exposure photos you may find the deepsky ones a little poor. Moon0 (240KB, 16 level greyscale)- etx-125ec, polar mount with RA motor on, 9.7 mm eyepiece projection, 0.7 sec exposure, add 400 asa film, black card technique (see the procedure at http://members.aol.com/comet36/methods/methods.htm#vi Dealing with vibration).
matthew@gzinc.com (Matthew Fiallos) [13 Jan 01]
This is my 1st attempt at a picture of the moon using a DS114 and a Toshiba PDR-M1 digital camera. Thanks for your consideration. Your site has inspired me to set up a support page for DS owners. It should be up in a few days and will be located at www.telescopesupport.com. I would like to link to you if possible for redundant information and ETX support. I have a friend at meade who let me have access to their DS trouble ticket log, and am going to summarize most issues. THANKS AGAIN for the inspiration.
jwevers@visuallink.com (Jeramy) [13 Jan 01]
This picture was taken on 01/06/2001 with a Canon EF camera, attached to a Meade ETX 125EC in prime focus. The film used was Fuji 800 ASA with a 1/1000th exposure time.
denis.joye1@libertysurf.fr (Denis JOYE) [7 Jan 01]
Here is a picture I took on 6th of january in the evening with my ETX 90-EC in following circumstances: - digital camera EPSON PC3000Z. - exposure time 1/80 sec - eyepiece projection with a 25 mm Super Plssel eyepiece This picture was transformed with IRIS software (see astroccd.com/terre/buil/us/iris/iris.htm) through a wavelet filter. This picture is a reduced copy of the original one whose size is 1500x1600.
esthermofet@msn.com (John Shirley) [7 Jan 01]
Here's the VERY first shot I pulled from my ETX60AT with my modified Kodak DVC-300 web cam at Newtonian focus. As you can see, there's a significant amount of aberration--not to mention the fact that it's SERIOUSLY out of focus. This is definitely a learning experience--primarily: don't use a cold notebook LCD screen to focus or set exposure times. Better luck next time. Mike here: Keep at it! The results will improve a lot with experience.
egbruce@fwi.com (Eric Bruce) [5 Jan 01]
This is my first attempt at photography with my ETX 125. I took this shot using a Canon EOS Rebel 2000, and Kodak ASA 400. Exposure time 1/25 second. Taken on 12/3/00.