Photos Relating to the Sky

The shots here were taken with a variety of equipment: lenses, telescopes, digital and film cameras, and even a low-light security video camera. None of these is larger than 1024x768, but I always recommend that mode for image viewing.

Earthly Photos
PHOTO	DESCRIPTION	PHOTO	DESCRIPTION
	Me and the "new" (used) C14 telescope ("Ralph") the day after I bought it, at Drew's place. 11/1995	Lorri and "Johnny Rocket" at the first annual Lake Pearrygin Private Star Party. The scopes are a C8 ("Alice"), C14 ("Ralph") and a C5 (incognito).
The Earth's shadow in the east at dusk (I call it "nightrise), a sign of a clear night. The pink band, called the "belt of Venus", is illuminated by the setting Sun. Taken 7/2000 at the Table Mountain Star Party.		I know most people think this is really pretty, but it's an abomination to me. The Seattle Space Needle Corporation decided it wanted to go Las Vegas to draw attention to itself. Fortunately, they've been very conservative about using it.
Solar System
	The Sun was partially eclipsed by the Moon in the afternoon of June 10, 2002. Just a half hour or so after the beginning (about 4:15 PDT), the Moon (moving from left to right in this shot) was about to cover the first of two sets of sunspots. Taken with the digital camera through "Alice" (a C8) with an f6.4 reducer/corrector and a 32mm Ploessl eyepiece.
The Moon and its ring, Jupiter, and Saturn all together were just too pretty to pass up. This is a 4-sec exposure on the C2020Z in its widest angle mode (about 35mm). Jupiter is the brighter of the two dots to the right, embedded in the jet contrail. 12/10/2000		The Moon was rising in the flight path out of Boeing. This was the third (and last) plane I saw pass. C8 scope, prime focus with an f6.3 reducer, 1/500th-sec, Fuji 64ASA film, 8/1994
	The waning gibbous Moon. The C2020Z was in its widest angle mode (about 35mm), and peered into a 36mm plössl in the C14 with a focal reducer/corrector. The thing about this shot that surprised me was the lack of vignetting. Taken 3/3/2002 around 1AM.		The fully sclipsed Moon on the evening of October 27, 2004.
The Moon hovered just above Venus on the evening of May 19th, 2007. Click on thumb for the full-resolution image. Olympus C730Z in full zoom mode.
This full-resolution image of Jupiter is a result of adding 8 digital exposures together. Taken through the C14 with a 15mm plössl, 2/8/2002.		This image captures Europa, and Europa's shadow on Jupiter's face. The red spot is hard to see in the lower right, and appears quite pale (because of a brighter exposure, to image the moon) Taken through the C14 with a 17mm plössl, 3/2/2002.
This full-resolution image of Saturn is a result of adding 7 digital exposures together. They were taken through the C14 with a 17mm plössl 9/22/2000.		This was taken 3/2/2002 (same night as the Jupiter shot, above), through the C14 with a 17mm plössl. Note the slight difference in orientation of the rings, and the different solar angle causing the shadow to have switched sides. The one on the left was before opposition, this one was after.
	Comet Hale-Bopp from near North Bend, WA, 4/11/1997. 50mm lens, Kodak Elite 200ASA, 15-min, with the camera riding on top of Ralph.		Comet Hale-Bopp, 4/11/1997 again, but with a 135mm lens. The star cluster just above and left of the comet's head is M34.
Farther out, but still inside the Milky Way
	This 13-sec image of globular cluster M13 was taken with the digital camera. To clean it up, a black frame was taken and the noisy pixels were subtracted from the raw image. C14 with a 17mm Plössl.
This 16-sec image of M42 has a dark frame subtracted, and is brightened. C14 with a 45mm Plössl eyepiece. M42 is an HII region in Orion. At right is a closeup of the Trapezium, the cluster of four obvious stars nestled inside. Click on the image to ID the six stars captured in this 13-sec with a 17mm Plössl eyepiece.
The Double Cluster in Perseus (one of my favorite scope objects) was shot on 35mm slide, then scanned. C102HD ("Ed"), prime focus, 8-min exposure.		This 10-second exposure is an image of the core of one of the clusters in the Double, taken with the digital camera. In my film shot, the bright knot in the left cluster is this "smiling cyclops" (AKA the "parachute"). C14 with a 26mm Plössl.
		Albireo (Beta Cygni) is a second-magnitude double star, known for the beautiful contrast in color between its component stars. The left image was taken in focus, whereas the right was taken slightly out of focus, to bring out the colors. Both were imaged through the C14 and a 40mm Plössl for five seconds with the digital camera.
Extragalactic
	This a favorite object of most observers: the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). You can see two dust lanes in it, and 2 other galaxies (M101 and M32) in this photo, taken through the C102HD at prime focus, 35mm slide (& scanned), 8-min exposure.