 (Full size 24KB) Here is a picture I took of the Sun with my 100mm aperture f/8 refractor on October 23, 2003 |
|
(Full size 24KB) Here is a picture I took of the Sun with my 100mm aperture f/8 refractor on October 23, 2003 |
 (Full size 12KB) The exposures were taken from my 18th floor apartment, which has a clear horizon to the northwest. I used a Nikkormat with a 200mm telephoto lens, on Kodak Gold (negative print) film. The exposures varied over a wide range, as I was not sure what was the correct exposure. |
 (Full Size 51KB)April 24, 2001 and (Full Size 60KB) on April 25, 2001. Leland Dolan took these sunspot pictures recently. Both pictures were taken at the prime focus of his 100mm f/8 refractor, on Kodak Tech-Pan film. |
 (Full size 28KB) Nearly-full waxing Moon, taken May 17, 2000 by Leland Dolan of Houston TX, using 100mm Takahashi refractor, on Kodachrome (64 ISO) slide film. Color slide was printed as black & white, then scanned. The combined processing increased contrast to enhance the ray structure surrounding the brighter craters. |
 (Full size 85K) Here is a recent picture of the entire sun taken by Leland Dolan. He used an f/8 refractor with a Thousand Oaks filter and 100 speed film. |
 (Full size 20KB) This is a composite of four photos of the Jan. 20-21, 2000 lunar eclipse. They show the brightening during totality, and the partial phase with the umbra moving off the lunar disk. I took these at the prime focus of a 100mm f/8 refractor. The two pictures of totality were taken with ISO 400 Fujichrome film, while the two partial phases were taken with ISO 100 Kodacolor. |
 (Full size 74K) Our sun has been active lately. Member Leland Dolan took this picture with a 100mm f/8 Takahashi refractor on 125 ISO B&W film. |
 (Full Size 34K) Another neat thing that can be done with photography is taking the spectra, or color spectrum, of stars. With a spectrum, you can determine the chemical makeup of the star. This spectra, taken by Leland Dolan, is of the star Sirius. |
 (Full size 42k) Leland Dolan took this picture on the evening of Aug. 25, 1960, at about 11:10 p.m. CST (no daylight time back then) from Tanglewood, about a mile west of Loop 610. The exposure was 30 minutes on Tri-X film. That's not the same Tri-X as you can buy today, since Kodak has changed emulsions several times. I used a folding camera, of 120 format, probably with the lens wide open at f/4.5. What's really amazing is that I recorded not only M31, but M33 (in the crosshairs) from this site. This ought to show how "good" the skies were back in 1960. |
 (Full size 80K) This astrophoto shows the Milky Way, taken in late summer of 1960 from member Leland Dolan's parents' home in Tanglewood, about six miles west from the center of Houston. One thing this photo illustrates is just how much of the stars have been lost to light pollution over the last four decades. To take an equivalent photo today, one would have to travel thirty or forty miles from central Houston. The photo "particulars" are not known, except that it was a tracked exposure because of the power pole on the left appears to be "trailed". |
 (Full size 17K) Member Leland Dolan sent this in: Even, deep in the heart of (light polluted) Houston, it is possible to photograph M42. The attached JPEG file has been cropped, and computer enhanced from a scanned Fujichrome 200 slide, taken from my patio, near River Oaks Center. Sunday night (Dec 14, 1998) was "quite" clear by Houston standards, so I wanted to see just how well M42 would look during an (approximate) 1 minute exposure, at f/8, taken with my 100mm refractor. This should inspire folks living in the suburbs who can (surely) get better pictures than this, unless they live a few blocks from the mall. |
 (Full size 20K) Many pictures of the moon have been taken. Some of the full moon, some with the moon at first quarter, some at new moon during a solar eclipse, and some showing "earthshine" - the reflected light off the earth. Because of the difference in brightness between earthshine and the sunlit potion, photographing earthshine is tricky. Also in this photo is the star Rho-1 Sagittarri, which makes this an even more impressive photograph. |
 (Full size 31K) Leland Dolan has taken a nice photo of the most recent full moon on May 10,1998. Taken from inside Houston's city limits, the moon can be observed and photographed even when stars are not out. With the current "smoke haze" from Mexico in the sky, the color of the moon takes on an interesting hue. |
 (Full size 171k) Leland Dolan took this picture of the Milky Way in Cygnus, showing the North America Nebula. Taken in 1987 near Katy Tx. Using Kodak Tech Pan, for 12 minutes with a 50mm f/2 lens and a H-alpha filter. |
 (Full size 97K) Jupiter taken by Leland Dolan in 1970 with a 6" Newtonian. Note the bright contrast of the Red Spot and the bands on the planet. |
