Constellations @ Middle Creek - July 2nd, 2010

I was doing some observing with the AELC up at Middle Creek and I just opened up the camera in its widest angle and caught the following pictures. Nothing too great, but it's still pretty cool to see the different colors of the stars in the first one, and how much they move in in 5 minutes in the second picture.
Pictures here, too.

Summer Update: The Moon through the Refractor May 30th, 2010

The night after my birthday party I got to take out the Refractor and took some pictures of the Moon.
This first one is pretty good, especially since it's through prime focus (no eyepiece). It's much clearer than my previous looks with the 300mm zoom lens.

I also decided to put the 10mm eyepiece in the camera adapter to get some closer shots. My favorite is this one of the crate above. It still seems a bit unclear...perhaps because the Moon was still low on the horizon. So the Moon pictures have improved, but there's still plenty of room for improvement.

A lot more pictures of the Moon from this night here.

Summer Update #2957: April 25th, 2010

While up in Ohiopyle I took some pictures of the moon just using the Canon Rebel XS and a 75-300mm zoom lens on 300mm. I like the look of them, but when I crop or zoom in, the quality goes down significantly.

More pictures from the night here

Summer Update: First Night through the Refractor April 4th, 2010

I attached the T-ring adapter to the Canon Rebel XS, and then attached an Orion Universal Camera Adapter.

Started out with the Beehive Cluster in Prime Focus

Here's Saturn in Prime Focus as well, but it's a bit small

Here's Saturn with an Orion 10mm Plossl Eyepiece projection

Lastly, the crop of one of my Saturn pictures
More pictures here

Summer Update: March 20th 2010 - Moon & Pleiades

I tried getting the moon and the Pleiades together in a shot, and I was successful! Although, in most of them, the moon was overexposed and the Pleiades underexposed. Any thoughts on how to fix this?

Moon with Pleiades


Setting Moon


Some Star Trails

Overall, nothing spectacular, but good practice for learning the basics. I need to find somewhere that's not light polluted to take star trails.

More pictures from this night here

Summer Update: March 17th, 2010

So the next night I went out again, and found that a parking lot not too far from home provided me a great view of the western horizon. Same subject matter as last time, but much earlier in the night. I really liked the sunset colors in the pictures, but there wasn't much emphasis on Venus or the Moon, since they are really small compared to the local landmarks from my perspective.

Moon, Venus, and Applebee's

Some good Earthshine bouncing off the dark side of the moon here.

More pics from March 17th, 2010 here

Summer Catch-up: March 16th pictures

So back in March I started taking some pictures just with the DSLR on a tripod with the 75-300mm lens. This was the first night I went out, which included a very young crescent moon. The pictures aren't spectacular, but I was happy to be able to fit Venus and a cool lookin' moon in one shot. (You'll have to open it up to see it in better detail.) I should find a better foreground for the pictures, and probably time it better so that the sunset colors come out.

More pictures from March 16th, 2010 here