A small sample of what you can do from a suburban site with . . .
crappy optics
a good mount & control system
and a great CCD camera!
Deep Space Images
NGC 891
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-7 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
M81
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-7 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
M97
Taken with a C-14 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-7 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
IC 434 - "the Horsehead Nebula"
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-7 CCD camera. Exposure was 10 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
M51
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 10 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
Comet Hale-Bopp
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 0.5 seconds. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, Digitally filtered with Rotationally Gradient filter with MIRA, converted to TIF format with MIRA, converted to JPEG format with LVIEWPRO.
NGC 253
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
M13
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 1 minute unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
M74
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
NGC 7331
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 30 minutes (sum of 30 1 minute exposures). Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
NGC 4565
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
M1
Taken with a C-14 at F/11 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 5 minutes unguided. Image taken using MIRA image processing software, calibrated with IRAF, converted to GIF format with Ximtool.
Solar System Images
Jupiter
Taken with a C-14 at F/22 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 0.01 seconds. Image taken and processed using Maxim CCD image processing software.
Saturn
Taken with a C-14 at F/22 on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount with an Apogee Instruments AP-2 CCD camera. Exposure was 0.05 seconds. Image taken and processed using Maxim CCD image processing software.
The Sun
Taken using a SBIG ST-237 camera and a Astrophysics Starfire 4" at f/8 and Solar Screen Filter. Exposures was 0.05 seconds using a Red filter in the optical path. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software.
The Moon
Taken using a SBIG ST-237 camera and a Astrophysics Starfire 4" at f/8. Exposures was 0.05 seconds using a Red filter in the optical path. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software.
Color Images
M27
Taken with an Astrophysics Starfire 4" f/8 refractor on an Optomechanics Research equatorial mount using an SBIG Pixcel-237 CCD camera. This tricolr image was taken using 300 second exposures in Luminance, Red, Green and Blue. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software.
M57
Taken using a SBIG ST-237 camera and a C-14 at F/7. One minute exposures in Red, Green and Blue (RGB) were used to make this composite. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software.
M42
Taken using a SBIG ST-237 camera and a Astrophysics Starfire 4" F/8 refractor. 90 second exposures in Red, Green and Blue (RGB) were used to make this composite. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software.
Time Lapse Sequences
Full Moon Sky at CBA West
Taken using a Apogee AP-7 CCD camera and a Nikon 18mm lens. A series of twentyfive - 30 second exposures were concatenated to make this animated GIF. The images were taken during the evening of September 26th 1999 UT near moon rise. The animation spans approximately one hour of diurnal rotation pointing at the zenith in the Cygnus region of the Milky Way. During the animation a earth orbiting satellite trail and an airplane trail can be seen. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software. WARNING! The GIF file is 3.5 MEG! Unless you have a highspeed link I would avoid attempting to view this animation!
Transit of Mercury
Taken using an SBIG ST-237 CCD camera and red filter through a 4" F/8 Astrophysics Starfire refractor with a SolarScreen full aperature objective filter. A series of 33 - 0.05 second exposures were concatenated to make this animated GIF of the Mercury transit of November 15th, 1999. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software. WARNING! The GIF file is 2.3 MEG! Unless you have a highspeed link I would avoid attempting to view this animation!
Leonids - Radiant 1999 from Tucson
Taken using a Apogee AP-2 CCD camera and a Nikon 18mm lens. A series of ten - 40 second exposures were concatenated to make the first animated GIF aimed at the shower radiant in Leo. The second animated GIF is centered on Orion. The images were taken during the morning of November 18th 1999 UT near twilight. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software. WARNING! The GIF file is 2.3 MEG! Unless you have a highspeed link I would avoid attempting to view this animation!
Leonids - Orion 1999 from Tucson
Taken using a Apogee AP-7 camera and a Nikon 18mm lens. A series of three - 40 second exposures were concatenated to make the first animated GIF aimed at Orion. . The images were taken during the morning of November 18th 1999 UT near twilight. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software. WARNING! The GIF file is 2.3 MEG! Unless you have a highspeed link I would avoid attempting to view this animation!
Lunar Eclipse from Tucson
Taken using a ST-237 and 100mm lens on the night of January 21st, 2000 UT. The images were taken while tracking the earth's shasow with the camera piggybacked on the C-14 and Optomechanics Research 20M mount. Partial phase exposures were 0.35 seconds at f/22. Total phase exposures where 2 seconds at f/5.6. Images taken and processed using Maxim DL/CCD image processing software. WARNING! The GIF file is 0.5 MEG!