A Couple More Astro Shots...

[kpantz]

Here are a few more shots I've collected over the past couple months...

The Double Cluster in Perseus. Two open clusters between Cassiopeia and Perseus.

A collage of my best solar system shots to date:

The Pleiades open cluster:

Widefield session was spoiled by clouds last night, but I took a couple frames before packing it in. Cassiopeia is in the lower right and Deneb (tail of Cygnus) in the upper left:

[kpantz]

Here's a better shot of the Pleiades (M45) I did the other night.

[Disc]

Here's a better shot of the Pleiades (M45) I did the other night.

Awesome shot!

[TimChgo9]

Awesome shots.

I am getting my kids and I a Celestron 130EQ telescope for Christmas. I am totally excited about eventually using it for Astro-photography. Any suggestions?

[kpantz]

Awesome shots.

I am getting my kids and I a Celestron 130EQ telescope for Christmas. I am totally excited about eventually using it for Astro-photography. Any suggestions?

With a ring and t-adapter, you could quickly get started on planetary and lunar imaging. Beyond that, you'll probably want a better mount than what Celestron gives you (I think you get the CG3, yes?) for capturing deep space objects that require longer exposures.

If you have a tripod and a decent DSLR, you'd be surprised at what you can do. Virtually all of my images (with the exception of the moon and the planets) are done with just the tripod and lenses that range from 18mm to 300mm. The longer the focal length, the shorter your exposures need to be on a stationary tripod, but taking a whole mess of shorter exposures and stacking them can yield pretty good results.

Happy observing!