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| Yes, after a long dry spell of no
pictures, yesterday we had a solar eclipse between 4 and 6 pm and I was finally able to get some shots afocally through the eyepiece using my Canon 300D and my TV 85 with Thousand Oaks Type II Solar Filter and a 32mm Plossl eyepiece. I got home from work at 5 pm and got the first shots and then took some more about 5:45. Note the movement of the crescent. Hope you enjoy. |
| Kent writes: Last night
(9/11/04) at the Neal Site in Dolen, TX, through the clouds and the Dew, I was able to try out my new SBIG ST-2000XCM one-shot color CCD camera and get images of M31 and the Double Cluster in Perseus. Both are three 120 second exposures, using auto dark in CCDSoft, and then stacked in Maxim DL, and processed in Photoshop. I also got a shot of M51 this week from my driveway here in The Woodlands, using my SBIG ST-7ME and new Astrodon color filters, which allows one to shoot the three color channels for the same amount of time. |
 (Full size 14KB) M31 |
 (Full size 47KB) Double Cluster |
 (Full size 52KB) M51 |
| Kent writes:
Here are some images that I took with my SBIG ST-2000XM CCD camera working through my Takahashi FSQ106N and EM-10 mount. Here are the three shots that I took of M4, M22 and M31 for you to see. Each is a series of six 60 second exposures, dark calibrated, aligned and combined and then processed in Photoshop. This is a new camera, so I am just learning. |
 (Full size 27KB) M4 |
 (Full size 33KB) M22 |
 (Full size 12KB) M31 |
| Dear
all, I just got back from the Texas Star Party and Ken Miller and I had a
wonderful time imaging and visually observing. The weather was great, as it only rained one night, and we had a ball working on the lower field. I was very humbled to be receive one of the several astrophotography awards, for the best wide field shot of TSP 04. Thanks for the congrats, Randy, Bill, Steve and Jeff. Here’s the photo taken Thursday morning 5/20/04 at 2:23 am. The shot was taken with my Canon Digital Rebel 300D SLR using my 50mm f/1.8 lens working at f/2 for 180 seconds at ISO 800. I piggybacked the camera on top of my Tak FSQ 106N using my EM-10 mount and unguided. The picture shows a 27 X 18 degree field of view and in the lower part you can see the tail of the Scorpion and M 6 and M 7, with the Milky Way leading up to Sagittarus and M 8 and M 20 towards the top of the picture. I feel very flattered that my photo was chosen. I hope you enjoy it. |
| Here are some more pictures that I took with my Canon 300D
Digital Rebel DSLR using my Tak FSQ 106N and EM-10 mount taken this past week at the Texas Star Party near Ft Davis (about 650 miles West of home). All shots were taken at iso 800 and unguided. Hope you enjoy: click here. |
 (Full size 4KB) I took an interesting picture with my SBIG STV camera tonight (1/19/2002) using my 8 inch LX 200. One of Jupiter's moons, Io, moved across the planet and cast a shadow that was very visible. |
 (Full size 22KB) I also took my first picture with my SBIG ST-237 CCD camera of a portion of the moon. |
 (Full size 2KB) 1/2/2002 Tonight (Jan 3,2002) I was able to get several good pictures of Saturn and Jupiter from my home in The Woodlands using my SBIG STV camera and my 8 inch LX 200. I used a 2X Barlows to increase the planet size, a flip mirror to find the objects and a Focal Reducer to change the scope from f/10 to f/3.75. The images were processed in Adobe Photo Deluxe. |
 (Full size 3KB) 1/2/2002 |
 (Full Size 12KB) 11/24/01 Tonight (11/24/2001) we were treated to a rare sight - a full moon (a blue one at that), and the planet Saturn moving behind it and then reappearing after disappearing for about an hour. I took a number of pictures with my Olympus D340L digital camera afocally (through the eyepiece) by turning off the flash, turning on the close-up, and just hand holding it. I was using my Tele Vue TV-85 telescope with a TV 9mm Nagler and a moon filter that produced 67X magnification with a 1.2 degree field of view. The best one was taken from our home about 7:45 pm on 11/30/01 and I enhanced it using Adobe Photo Deluxe 3.0. |
 (Full Size 8KB) 11/2001 And here is his first picture of the moon he has taken with his new SBIG ST-V camera. |
| On Wednesday 3/10/04 I was able to photograph The Running Man (yes, he looks
like that) which is just above M42 with my Canon 300D Digital SLR camera using my FSQ106N working at F/5 on my EM-10 mount. I used nine 180 second shots at ISO 800 and am still struggling with processing. Here's a look at the cropped version: http://home.houston.rr.com/kfrancis/images/300D/NGC1977-Running-Man.jpg Here's the whole photo, complete with satellite going past: http://home.houston.rr.com/kfrancis/images/300D/M42&NGC1977-9X180.jpg |
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 (Full Size 4KB) 2/9/01 Here are some pics taken using the Eyepiece Projection method of Venus and Saturn he took on Friday Feb 9th through the eyepiece afocally with my Olympus D-340L digital camera. He used his 8 inch LX200 with my 13.8mm SW Meade eyepiece. |
 (Full size 103KB) 2/11/01 Taken on a tripod also from his home in The Woodlands This was taken with an OM-1 50 mm f/4, 15 seconds. |
 (Full size 98KB) These are the first photos of the moon taken by Kent Francis using eyepiece projection. Using his 8" f/10 and a 32mm Televue Plossl, he took these 2 photos and put them together to get the lunar image. |
