 (Full size 6K) Hubble's Nebula (NGC2261) by Terry Angelich taken Dec 12, 1997. Using a Cookbook Camera 245 on a Celestron-8 with a f/6.3 focal reducer. This is 4 separate 30 second images stacked together using Richard Berry's CCD software. The location was north Houston. |
 Click on the picture to visit James Benton's web page or click here |
| Dick Bobick has taken these images of NGC253, a spiral
galaxy in Sculptor and the famous Helix Nebula NGC7293 using a Takahashi FS-128 and an SBIG ST-8E. See each image for the details. |
 (Full size 952KB) Messier 33 galaxy in Triangulum. These 3 images were taken at the Columbus Observatory site. The details of the images are in the full size view. |
 (Full size 189KB) Messier 100 galaxy in Coma Berenices. |
 (Full size 433KB) NGC 6992 Veil Nebula. This is only a portion of the entire Veil. |
| Here are 3 CCD images taken by Dick Bobick at our
Columbus
Observatory.. They are:M27-Dumbell Nebula in Vulpecula, M83-Galaxy in Hydra and NGC7293-The Helix Nebula in Aquarius. All were several images "stacked" together to form the final image. The color images were taken in using red, green and blue filters. The time of each image varied from 100 to 300 seconds. The camera is an SBIG ST-8E. And the telescope was a Takahashi CN-212 or FS-128. Each image is labeled with the particulars. |
| I would like to remind everyone that it is
not too early to view mars... Scope: Takahashi FC-100 Camera: QuickCam Pro 4000 Software: Astrostack / Photoshop 9-02-05 image 1/15 sec exposure @f/40 600 frames 9-03-05 image 1/15 sec exposure @f/40 600 frames |
 (Full size 429KB) Prude Ranch Historical Marker |
 (Full size 406KB) Upper Field Larry Mitchell's 36 inch Telescope in center |
 (Full size 375KB) RV Area |
 (Full size 387KB) Tent Camping Area |
 (Full size 381KB) Otto Struve 2.1 Meter Telescope |
 (Full size 433KB) Hobby-Eberly 9.2 Meter Segmented Mirror |
|
I was digging through my files and found this. It's of the aurora taken at about 3:15 a.m. on September 4, 2003.... I was about 25 miles south of Juneau, Alaska. Oh? Did I mention this photo was taken from a moving cruise ship? I was at the front of the S.S. Sun Princess... watching the aurora change form as we drifted in and out of the fog. Simply magical. Details: 50mm lens at f 1.4, 3 second exposure, ISO800 film. |
 (Full size 13KB) |
 (Full size 13KB) As relayed by Mark Egan: As you may have read, the aurora WAS visible down here in Houston on the night of March 30-31, 2201. I was driving home around midnight that night and noticed a pulsating red glow out my windshield (of all places!!!!!) as I was driving north on Mason road (in Katy north of I-10). Within minutes, I sped home, got one of my roommates (Hannah Lange, my other roommate wasn't interested (his loss)) and we drove to an area with a flat N horizon. What a show! I'm a U2 fan, and one of their song lyrics says: ".....under a blood red sky....." (song "New Year's Day"). EXACTLY RIGHT. Attached are a few pics from the show. That's Hannah in one of them. |
| Details: Pentax K-1000; Kodak Portra 160 NC print film; exposures varied from 8 to 15 sec. at f/4 and f/2.8. |
 (Full size 16KB) 4/4/2001 |
 (Full size 29KB) 4/4/2001 |
 (Full size 229KB) Orion rising taken by Mark Egan of Houston TX. Taken at Enchanted Rock State Park in the early morning hours of September 28. This was a CAMERA-ON-TRIPOD shot with a Pentax K-1000 camera, 50 mm lens (at f/2) for about 20 seconds. I used Kodak Pro 1000 print film. It captured the Orion Nebula, NGC 2024 (that nebula to the NE of Zeta Orionis), IC 434 (the nebula that the Horsehead lies in front of), and that large nebula around the head of Orion (it's faint!). I illuminated the trees with a flashlight during the exposure. |
 (Full size 254KB) Cygnus region by Mark Egan of Houston TX. Just like the above photo, it too, is a CAMERA-ON-TRIPOD shot with a Pentax K-1000 and a 50 mm lens (at f/2) for about 30 seconds on Kodak Pro 1000. It captures the North American, Pelican, and Veil Nebulae (the last one is small-- see if you can find it :-) ) It also shows the Gamma Cygni complex. The red sensitivity of this film is great! |
Mars by Bill Flanagan
10/31/05
Active Mars - A number of dust storms have developed and evolved on Mars over the past couple of weeks.
These 12 images were made between 10/17 and 10/30 and show how the dust storms have progressed on the surface of Mars.
The images were taken from my backyard in Houston, TX. Due to trees and other obstructions, I only have a clear shot at Mars
for about 2 hours before it transits the meridian. Since the images were taken near transit on successive nights and because
the length of a Mars day is about 39 minutes longer than an Earth day, Mars appears to be rotating backwards in this series of images.
The last image in the sequence on the morning of 10/30 shows the Sinus Meridiani region almost totally obscured by dust.
This is the landing site of the Opportunity Rover. Let's hope the Opportunity is weathering this storm in stride!
The images where taken through a Celestron C-14 at f/35 with a Lumenera LU-075M camera.Each image is a LRGB composite of four exposures (Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue).
Stacking and wavelet enhancement with Registax V3.
Color registration and composites were made with AIP4Win.
| A dust storm has developed on Mars in the
Southern Chryse Region on Monday, October 17th. You can see the early stage of the storm in the center image to the left of Solis Lacus or the "Eye of Mars". The storm appears to be filling the canyons of Valles Marineris as shown in the third image on the right. It is bright and large enough to be easily seen in visual observations with amateur telescopes. Visual observations on Tuesday morning showed the storm as a bright region with a "snake like" shape near the center of the planet. The three images where taken through a Celestron C-14 at f/35 with a Lumenera LU-075M camera from Houston, TX. Each image is a LRGB composite of four exposures (Luminance, Red, Green, and Blue). They where stacked and enhanced with wavelets using Registax V3 and the color registration and composite was made with AIP4Win. |
 Mars Dust Storm (Full size 85KB) |
| Here is a picture I took at Columbus on
the 3rd. The camera is a Minolta DiMage XT pocket digital camera, ISO 160, 1/45 sec at f/2.8 with a 38mm lens. |
 Sunset at Columbus (Full size 1MB) |
 (Full size 172KB) Taken with Kodak E100S film using a Celestron-5 for prime focus. Time was 1/60th from his backyard in Houston. |
 (Full size 35KB) Comet Hyakutake by Steve Goldberg of Houston TX USA. Taken at the Society's Columbus observatory site on Saturday, March 23, 1996 at 1AM. Using Royal Gold 1000 with a 28mm lens mounted on a Skypatrol for 5 minutes. |
 (Full size 101KB) Large Magellanic Cloud by Steve Goldberg. 3M1000 Slide film, 135mm f3.5 for 5 minutes. From La Serena Chile in April, 1986 (Before 1987A Supernova) |
 (Full size 46KB) Solar Prominence by Steve Goldberg. "Oak Tree" at 1 o'clock position. Kodak 100 through 4" Refractor f15 1500mm for 1/60 sec. May, 1989 Texas Star Party. |
 (Full size 131KB) Todd writes: Hey Steve, I had a great time at TSP again this year….thanks again for your support with keeping it going. I have some astrophotos uploaded to my web page for you to see. Feel free to display some on the HAS page for the other members to see. Click here to view Todd's page. |
| Robert and Philip write about their first astro-images: These images were taken with a Meade LXD55 SC-8 (8in Schmidt-Cassegrain) 2000mm focal length. Camera: Nikon Coolpix 880 (Manuel mode 30 sec @ f2.8) Using Digi-t System to mount camera. |
 (Full size26KB) 4/1/97 Comet Hale-Bopp I took it from the Davis Mountains State Park in Ft. Davis TX on 4/1/97 at 8:30-8:50. I used Hypered Kodak PPF, in a piggybacked 200mm f/4 Nikkor lens on my 12.5" Newtonian (as pictured on the ATM Page ) for 20 minutes. |
 (Full size 10KB) 03/25/96 Comet Hyakutake by Mark Lawrence of Houston TX USA Taken at Ft. Davis, TX USA in the Hotel Limpia parking lot on 03/25/96 at 1AM CST. He piggybacked a 200mm lens on his 12.5" NEWTONIAN . He guided for 17 minutes with the main optics and used hypered Tech Pan. |
 (Full size 86KB) 02/17/96 Omega Centauri by Mark Lawrence. A 20 minute exposure on hypered Tech Pan on 02/17/96 at Ft. Davis, TX, USA. |
| Dick Locke writes: While I'm by no means done, I've put together a number of
images and real web pages from my West Texas trip. The "thin moon" page has updates and corrections. Check out the DSLR galaxy shot vs. the film shot... Dick continues to post new images from West Texas to his main astrophotography page. To view his images, click here. |
 (Links to Dick Locke's Milky Way web site) Pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy by Dick Locke, May 2004, Davis Mountains, TX. |
International Space Station Transit by Bob Menius
10/12/05
| Here are two versions of a picture that I
took last week. They show a solar transit of the International Space Station. Picture Details: By Bob Menius Oct. 6, 2005 at approximately 2:00 pm CST Meade LX200 8" SCT with f6.3 reducer Kendrick solar filter (Baader film) Canon 20D digital SLR (1/6000 sec at ISO 200) Took 5 frames/sec for 10 sec. ISS appeared in only 3 frames. Cropped, sharpened, and added contrast. Range of ISS is 269 miles, and it is docked with Soyuz. Predicted by Tom Fly's e-mail alert (http://iss-transit.sourceforge.net/) |
| Attached are 2 images, both of them
taken with my Nikon D50 at 300 mm. The first was taken at 5:44 am on June 24th, and the second at 9:01 pm on June 26th, they are (respectively) the last old and first new crescents of this lunation. Click to view the 2006 Thin Moons Event Info. |
| Here's a picture of today's solar eclipse. Taken by holding my digital camera to the eyepiece of my Coronado PST. |
 (Full size 194KB) |
| Here are some pictures taken by Steve Sartor at our Columbus site. |
|
Thought I'd send along a new image of M42 I shot from my backyard in Katy.
Details on the M42 image are: Telescope - Orion ED 80 f7.5 (fl 600mm) (piggy backed on an 8"LX200 GPS used as the mount) Camera - SBIG ST-7ME (NABG) with Schuler RGcBc and luminance filters Exposure - L: stack of 30x45 sec exposures layered with a stack of 30 x 15sec exposures to bring out the area - around the trapezium. Total exposure time is about 20 minutes. RGB - stack of 8x45 sec each layered with a stack of 8 x 15 sec each or a total time of about 6 mins per color channel. All images were shot from my backyard in Katy - luminance was shot on the evening of 1/12/05 and the color was shot on 1/17/05 as I was dodging the clouds. This is the first time I have processed something quite this difficult, and I think I learned a lot by doing it! |
 (Full size 71KB) |
| Attached are images
of M-27 and M-74 I took on the night of October 11 2004 using the C-14 at the Columbus site and an ST-7ME camera with Schuler RGB filters. In order to get a bit more FOV, I used a Meade 3.3 focal reducer. Due to the spacing the focal length is about 1000 mm and about f2.8. The sky was pretty good that night and I was able to listen to the Astros playoff game on the radio. All in all an enjoyable night! |
 (Full size 108KB) M-27 exposures were L: 10 min R: 3.3 min G: 3.3 min B: 7.3 min |
 (Full size 45KB) M-74 exposures were L: 60 min R: 10 min G: 10 min B: 24 min |
 HAS member Mark Williams now has his own web site of CCD images that he has taken the past couple of years. Some are from the HAS Observatory site, the Texas Star Party and Star Hill Inn in New Mexico. Please see his site here. |
(Full size: under 16KB) Barbara Wilson writes: my results with the Nikon Coolpix and short tube 80. Times: 9:40 pm, 9:47 pm, 10:07PM. |
 (Full size 23KB) Comet Hyakutake by Buster Wilson of Houston TX USA. Taken at the Society's Columbus observatory site on Thursday, March 21, 1996. Details to follow. |
 (Full size 17KB) One is a sunset taken in Galveston, Texas in 1992. A 35 mm camera with a 35-70 mm zoom lens was used. Film:Ektachrome 400. |
 (Full size 16KB) The other image is of the crescent moon, taken through the Starfinder 8 in April of 1993. Film:Ektachrome 400. |
