AMANT@kochind.com (Aman, Tim) [31 Oct 01]
I snapped some pictures Sunday and noticed this, and browsing the web today I find the following article: www.astronomy.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/000/641xqoki.asp. Currently, the main sunspot is 5 times the size of earth, but who knows if it's going to grow more? [Top] Meade ETX-90M, 20MM eyepiece, Orion Solar filter. Kodak DC-210 digital camera held to eyepiece in the "macro" mode. [Bottom] Here's a barlowed version of the sunspot pic I shot last Sunday.... Same equipment as the previous email with an Orion "Shorty" barlow.
tpmiles@bellsouth.net (Tony Miles) [31 Oct 01]
It's been a while since I submitted any pics to your website. I sold my ETX90EC about a year ago, but recently I picked up an ETX90 spotting scope off of Astromart real cheap. So yesterday when I had the chance I broke out my Orion solar filter and Quickcam VC and took these shots of the sun. There were three major areas of sunspot activity. These pics are raw, unprocessed pics. I used a Mogg 1.25" 0.66 focal reducer attached to the Quickcam.
jerryg@gaiser.org (Jerry Gaiser) [18 Oct 01]
Attached is a photo I snapped this morning with my ETX60. Noticed last night on SpaceWeather.com that there was a big region (9661) visible and so, hoping for clear sky, I set up the scope, did a quick align and slewed the sun. The region was very clear in the center of the FOV with the 25mm EP that came with the ETX. My trusty Mavica FD-71 to the eyepiece and about 3/4 full zoom. I snapped about 4 shots with this being the best. Not bad for a rank beginner. Thanks for a great site.
adriance@swiftkenya.com (Dave Adriance) [16 Oct 01]
Attached is my first attempt at astrophotography. It was taken on October 14 at 17:00, here in Nairobi, Kenya. I used my ETX-125 with a Super Plossel 40mm EP, using a handheld Olympus C-3030 digital camera. Filter is a JMB Class A solar filter. I increased image saturation and contrast using ThumbsPlus software, but even the original was amazingly clear and sharp for using such a "primitive" shooting technique. I'm now encouraged to try shots of the moon... Thanks much for the great site and best regards. Mike here: Image cropped for display.
GERALD_WECHSELBERGER@at.ibm.com (Gerald Wechselberger) [13 Sep 01]
Today again there was a very impressive big Sunspot group visible. If you hurry you still can have a 'life' look at it. Please find attached 2 images, The shots were made with an Canon G1 and 40mm Eyepiece projection attached to the ETX 125EC. Picture made today noon, Exposure time 1/200 respective 1/500 second, Image compressed and little improved with Micrografix Publisher. Clear Sky!
erwin@matys.co.at (Erwin Matys) [08 Sep 01]
solar image obtained on 30th august 2001 with a 300mm lens and a logitech quickcam pro riding piggyback atop my ETX-90RA. 8 images resampled and combined with photoshop - unsharp masking applied. more etx images are displayed at members.eunet.at/erwin/.
dbielitz@wyndham.com (Dean Bielitz) [21 Jul 01]
Thanks for all the effort you and others put into maintaining your very helpful site. When I have questions Meade questions, your site is the first place I go. Please find attached my first try at astrophotography. I took this picture on July 18 at 1:30pm with an ETX 90, 30mm eyepiece (eyepiece projection), Olympus D460-L, 7X close up lense adapter (in non-macro mode) and home-made camera adapter. I adjusted the brightness up by one stop (when taking the photo) and subsequently adjusted brightness of the jpeg image using Paint Shop Pro 7. I am shooting for the moon in a week (so to speak). Mike here: I cropped and slightly sharpened this image from the fullframe version.
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. This first photo is of the sun. It was taken July 16, 2000 using a Thousand Oaks Optical Type 2+ filter, a Nikon FM at the Cassegrain focus and Kodachrome ISO 200. The exposure is 1/250 sec. at f/16, taken from Clayton, North Carolina. Much continued success with your site!
erwin@matys.co.at (Erwin Matys) [31 May 01]
this is an image of a large type g group obtained on 24th may 2001 with my ETX-90RA and a logitech quickcam express. the 5 best images were resampled and combined with photoshop - some unsharp masking was applied. more stuff like this can be found at members.eunet.at/erwin/ thanx again for your great site
b_allouche@yahoo.fr (bernard allouche) [16 May 01]
Just for an info added later: my DVcam has a 20x zoom (equivalent 24x36 about 40~400mm in photo mode (1156*864 pixels) or 50~500mm in video mode(640*480)); with the numerical zoom (very good in fact because of the fine CCD) i can reach 1000mm. I bought recently a 2x adapter to achieve a focal of 2000mm ! It can shoot 3 images a second at the sensibility of 0.5 lux, or 12 im/s at 1.5 lux. The images are stored on the tape and it's easy to transfer them in the memory card for storage and processing on my PC. The usefull astrostack makes the rest, and i recommand tmpegenc to encode the stacked pictures in a mpeg video file. I hope to make next time a video of the rotation of the sky around Polaris or, why not?, the travel of the Moon at the speed of 0.5"/sec. Here is a view of the Sun without ETX but only the DVcam. Thanks for your site!
FAIC0N25@aol.com [16 Apr 01]
Taken on asa400 kodak gold Canon rebel X and the ETX RA
jnunes01@rochester.rr.com (Jim Nunes) [9 Apr 01]
I've been snooping around your site for months, and think it's great. I've picked of tons of tips to help me get started, and guide me along my way. Here is my first attempt at astrophotography. It was taken on April 8, 2001 at about 12 noon. I used my ETX-70 and the Sanyo VPC-X360 Digital Camera held up to the 25mm lens. The solar filter is a Class A, Glass, Identi-View Solar Filter. The photo is unretouched or edited. Can't wait to try some lunar shots!
gerald_wechselberger@at.ibm.com [3 Apr 01]
Today there was a very impressive big Sunspot group visible. (After weeks of clouds) Please find attached 2 images, The shots were made with an Canon G1 and 40mm Eyepiece projection attached to the ETX 125EC. Picture made today afternoon, Exposure time 1/100 respective 1/500 second, Image compressed and little improved with Micrografix Publisher.
beruberu@freesurf.ch (Philippe HAAKE) [3 Apr 01]
Does a lot of people use a Digital Camera adapters??? Is there any good alternative to the one of scoptronix??? Or everyone is happy with it.... Thanks for all, and you may put my small pictures on your site... Mike here: I don't know how many use the Scopetronix adapter but it does work nicely. There are some comments about it on the Accessories - Astrophotography page.
seilah@clix.pt (Luis Carreira) [31 Mar 01]
Here's a picture of the largest sunspot group dated 31 Mar 2001. It was taken with a ETX90EC + 1000 Oaks type 2+ using a 15mm (Meade Plossl 4000) for eyepiece projection. The camera body used was an SIGMA SA300. No processing, just scanned at 1200 dpi (HP 5370C) and resized (Mike here: I adjusted the levels a little bit). There are more pictures at my website (portuguese), if you wish to add it to your links page I would apreciate. http://planeta.clix.pt/portaodastronomia/ - the name is "Pátio da Astronomia" - translation "Astronomy's Backyard" PS: Thank you for the Enormous Site.
albireo@concentric.net (Joe & Jolene Popolato) [31 Mar 01]
Attached is another photo of sun spots viewed on Saturday 3/31/2001. The shots were taken with my my EXT90-EC, using a Thousand Oaks Type II Solar Filter and a Sony FD88 Digital Camera.
bareketj@internet-zahav.net (m&j bareket) [28 Mar 01]
These are some new shots I took with my 90mm ETX. The sun was at prime focus (f/13.8). All with kodak 400asa film. pics taken 48 hours apart to show the sun spots movement. The sun at the left was taken this (28/3) afternoon so the big sun spot maybe visible tomarrow also.
gerald_wechselberger@at.ibm.com (Gerald Wechselberger) [12 Mar 01]
Please find attached a CCD picture of the Sun from March 10th 2001 1:39pm. Pictured with my Canon G1PowerShot Digitalcamera attached to the ETX 125EC with 40mm eyepiece projection,Using Thousand Oaks filter. (The Canon is quite nice for planetary photography but unusable for Deepsky as it does internally automatic Thermal Noise Subtraction which destroys all long exposures!) The picture is made out of 2 images stacked with Micrografix Publisher.
albireo@concentric.net (Joe & Jolene Popolato) [29 Jan 01]
You have a great web site. Thanks to your site, I've been able to make some good choices in my purchases of a finder scope, sun filter and Visual Back for my new ETX-90EC. I just received a Thousand Oaks sun filter and tried it out today. Attached is a sun spot photo I took this morning with the ETX. Included with this morning's photo is another sunspot photo I took 12 months ago with my old Meade 8" Newtonian Reflector. I believe last year was the peak in the sun's 11 year sun spot cycle. the ETX-90EC photo was taken with a Sony FD88 digital camera held against a 40mm Sirius Plossl eye piece on my ETX. The solar filter is a Thousand Oaks Type 2+. I'm still having a little trouble getting a good focus through the eyepiece with my digital camera. With practice I should get better. Thanks again for the work you've put into producing and maintaining your web site.
JOHNSHORT@compuserve.com (John Short) [4 Jan 01]
All were taken through the Baader Astro filter with a Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera. Shutter speed 1/125th aperture f4.5 More pics are available on my website http://www.johnshort.supanet.com/