These images are amazing! It's one thing to do star trails or star fields, but the true astro-photography is amazing!!! I so wish I could afford the equipment to get the results shown on these submissions.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...sterpieces.html

Those are absolutely amazing photos Counterman.


Wheels

You would be surprised at what can be achieved with quite a modest setup. Obviously, high quality equipment (ie expensive) will yield higher quality images, but the experience and knowledge of the user is a huge factor in the outcome.

Here is a shot I took earlier this year of M51 using my 10in SCT:


There is still plenty of room for improvement but it shows good detail in the spiral arms.

This image of the same galaxy was taken with a small 70mm scope that cost me $150 (factory refurbished), a $50 tripod that has a tilt plate (for polar alignment) and the same CCD camera that was used for the image above (about $500 new). The little scope could not cope with the weight of the filter wheel, so the image had to be monochrome.



A few more:

M17 The Swan Nebula using a Hydrogen-Alpha narrowband filter:


M27 using the same setup:


Jupiter:


Part of the Abell 2151 'super-cluster' of galaxies in Hercules:


and without the labels:


M13 Globular Cluster:


You can basically sink as much, or little, as you want into astrophotography. Some invest many thousands of dollars, but for most of us, much less.

Way cool Man. I think I am about sold on trying this out at some point in my life.

But my question is...

How do you find anything? I would assume to see that "M51" you need pin-point precision on your aim. Or do computers help?

For me, computers do the hard work. Others (especially visual observers) like to manually 'star hop' to their targets using a good old paper map.

My scope has an onboard computer that points the scope, but I hook it up to my laptop and drive it with a program called 'The Sky' (there are lots of alternative plaetarium programs available that will drive a 'GoTo' scope. It's pretty neat to watch once you have it all sync'd. Click on a star or other target and then click on 'Slew' - and off it goes. You have to make minor adjustments if the slew is big (I usually sync on a bright star close to my intended target which helps immensely). I'm a bit of a gadget man, so I get a kick out of running things with the computer. On cold nights I use RealVNC to remotely operate my laptop, so I can stay in the house for most of the session (cheating I know, but it beats freezing).

Amazing pictures! I'm still waiting for a tripod to deliver

Thought this was suitable for this thread.

http://www.slate.com/id/2227828/

Interesting read - thanks!

What a last 7 days for space photography. Now check this one out:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...-night-sky.html

Stunning!

Here is my latest (also posted in the Community Hall)..
NGC 7331