Astronomical Images
After my first astronomical experiences I wish to “preserve” the observed objects, to show them my family members, friends or other people interested in astronomy. I also want to document my observations for further comparison.
The first photos I made with an Olympus OM-1 SLR analog SLR. The camera does not have any electronic parts, so that it works at very cold nights well. I used some objectives which I had bought at some ebay auction. My first objects were star fields of the summer milky way. The camera was mounted on a motorized and optimized EQ-5. After an rough alignment the EQ-5 was good enough for 20 minutes uncorrected guiding with a 50mm photo lens.
I made the photos outside from Berlin at Beiersdorf/Brandenburg and let developed the images on A4-size photo paper. After digitizing them with my scanner I was very surprised about the depth of the longtime exposures under a clear sky. You find these pictures from 2001 in the Starfields section.
My next step was imaging with an modified PhilipsToYou Webcam. I made photos of Jupiter and Saturn by combining the images of 2-3 min Videos. For this I used my 120/1000 FH refractor with focal and eyepiece projection.
Along with my Observatory I changed my equipment. I build a Audine CCD and for these I ordered a grade 2 ST-402 ME CCD Sensor from Kodak/US, but they send me a grade 1 chip since there was no grade 2 available. I was very glad about Kodak’s service. The CCD sensor is very sensitiv, but at all, the Audine with their 600g housing, an external big power supply for the 5V/12V/18V voltage and the slow communication over the parallel port are not as usable for astronomical imaging as I expected.
Since 12/2007 I photograph with an unmodified Canon EOS 30D/50D, ATIK 16HR with filterwheel and Astronomik Type II LRGB, Ha filters. A Starlight Express Lodestar is ordered and they will take care about the guiding in the near future.
Feel free to take a look on my good - and sometimes not so good :-) - astronomical images. I sort them due to their object classes:
|
