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PLANETARY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY
Last updated: 17 July 2001
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PLANETARY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY |
This page shows some of my planetary astrophotography using the ETX.
| Venus Occultation - 17 July 2001 [17 Jul 01] |
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Click image to start QuickTime movie |
Setup:
ETX-125EC with Autostar 2.2Er
I did a quick Autostar Easy Two-Star alignment (just accepted the alignment star as centered). The fog cleared out in time to capture the disappearance of Venus behind the illuminated portion of the Waning Crescent Moon.
This was the easy part as I could track Venus as she approached the Moon. I missed capturing the reappearance although I was able to view it through the ETX finderscope.
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| Venus [18 Mar 01] |
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Venus on 18 March 2001 at 1430 local time. Taken with the ETX-125EC at 73X (top) and 146X (bottom) using the Ricoh RDC-4200 (handheld afocal photography). Even though it was still early afternoon I elected to try to find Venus using the Autostar. I used the Autostar Easy Align and just accepted the alignment stars as "centered". Then I did a GOTO Venus. At first I couldn't see Venus in the Finderscope but then as I began to slew around I discovered it had been hiding behind a crosshair and was just below the center of the Finderscope! These images were cropped from the full frame versions. Note the reflections that are visible. The bright reflection in the bottom photo is from the inside of the OTA where the Sun was shining on it. The dark spot is the secondary mirror.
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| Venus [12 Mar 01] |
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Venus on 12 March 2001 through the ETX-125EC using a 9.7mm eyepiece. Ricoh digital camera was handheld. Color fringing due to the low altitude of Venus above the western horizon.
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| Venus [10 Feb 01] |
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These afocal photos were taken using a Ricoh RDC-4200 Digital Camera (macro mode) mounted on an ETX-125EC on 13 January 2001. The camera was mounted using the Scopetronix Digital Camera Adapter. The top one used the 26mm eyepiece and the bottom one a 9.7mm eyepiece. These are full frame photos to show the relative size. They were taken shortly before sunset. Some digital enhancement was done (adjusted levels to darken the sky background and sharpened).
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See the Planets Astrophotography for photos taken 1996 and 1997.
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