DEEPSKY ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY Last updated: 19 February 2007

Here are some deepsky astrophotographs taken with my LXD55 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. All of these were taken with a Nikon D70 DSLR.

M42 and M51 [19 Feb 07]
M42, the Great Nebula in Orion, taken with a Meade #777 Off-Axis Guider attached. Approximately 1 minute exposure was done with the D70 set at ISO 1250.
M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken with the Off-Axis Guider. Approximately 5 minutes at ISO 1250 with some manual guiding corrections. (Image cropped from original fullframe version.)
M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda [8 Nov 05]
M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, and its companion galaxies, M110 (to the left) and M32 (on the right, close to the edge of M31)
M1, the Crab Nebula [8 Nov 05]
M42, the Great Nebula in Orion [8 Nov 05]
single exposure
stack of 8 exposures
M57, the Ring Nebula [8 Nov 05]
M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules [27 Sep 05]
Taken at the 8"SC prime focus using the Scopetronix Prime Focus T-Adapter. It is a stack of nine 30 second exposures (no manual tracking corrections) using Lynkeos (Mac OS X). ISO 800. Some editing was done in GraphicConverter. Note that the central star can be seen!
M13, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules [11 Jul 05]
This image was a 60 second exposure at ISO 800 taken at Prime Focus of the 8"SC. Some trailing is evident; I will be working on that for future astrophotography with the 8"SC Prime Focus. This image was cropped and some editing was done in Photoshop.
M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra [11 Jul 05]
It was also a 60 second exposure at ISO 1600, cropped and edited in Photoshop. Some trailing during the exposure is also evident. But the central star can be seen.
M31, the Great Galaxy in Andromeda [11 Jul 05]
This is a piggyback exposure with three images (one 5 minute and two 10 minute exposures at ISO 800) stacked using Lynkeos. It was cropped and edited in Photoshop.

Go to my 2002 Deep Sky Astrophotography Page.

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