IC342

Object: IC342 (Caldwell 5)

Type: Galaxy

Distance: 13 million light years

Constellation: Camelopardalis

Date: 31 December 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen 114mm f5.3 ED refractor

Subframes: 8 x 300 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

A mediocre effort that shows the limitations of unguided exposures. This dreadfully dim galaxy needs more and longer subs to do it justice, I think, but even the GPDX won't track that well unguided for the lengths of subs probably needed.

Nevertheless, the spiral structure just about shows up through the noise.

Jupiter

Object: Jupiter

Date: 29 December 2001 (21.31 GMT)
Equipment: Casio digital camera, 9mm eyepiece afocal, Vixen VC200L

Subframes: 10 x 0.2 second, no darks or flats.

I've never had a lot of success imaging planets and this effort has been my most successful to date. Registax allowed me to pull out Europa and a transit of Io as well as the GRS.

The Cocoon Nebula

Object: IC5146 (Caldwell 19)

Type: Nebula

Distance: 3300 light years

Constellation: Cygnus

Date: 28 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, Vixen 114mm f5.3 ED refractor

Subframes: 24 x 120 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

This object could do with a wider field, if only to capture the extended dark nebula B168, whose eastern lobe IC5146 sits in, and which is only vaguely indicated in these images.

The lower image is a false colour version of the one above, just because I can, really. Click on either to enlarge.

Comet Ikeya-Zhang

Object: 153P Ikeya-Zhang

Type: Comet
Constellation: Pisces

Date: 21 March 2002
Equipment: Casio digital camera, afocally coupled to 25mm eyepiece, VC200L

Subframes: 6 x 60 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

This beauty was clearly visible to the naked eye even though it was only 9 degrees above the horizon when I caught it. The photograph gives a good impression of what it actually looked like through the eyepiece - the beauty of afocal photography.

The Crescent Nebula

Object: NGC 6888 (Caldwell 27)
Type: Nebula
Distance: 4700 light years
Constellation: Cygnus
Date: 26 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, 114mm f5.6 Vixen refractor
Subframes: 12 x 180 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

Another one to get around to re-doing now I have a bit more experience AND a hydrogen alpha filter. This object just cries out for more and longer subs to do it justice. Still, not bad for an early attempt.

Venus/Moon conjunction

Possibly my first astrophotograph ever, which I recently found in an old photo wallet and scanned in. It's dated 29 December 2000, with a time of 18.00. A quick glance at a SkyMap Pro chart for that time shows Venus with a phase of 60% and the Moon with a phase of 14%, and suggests the two star visible between the overexposed Venus and the Moon are Delta and Gamma Capricorni.

The shot was taken with an Olympus OM2 and a 300mm telephoto lens, 1 second exposure at f5.6 on Kodak Gold 200.

The North America Nebula.

Object: NGC 7000 (Caldwell 32)
Type: Nebula
Distance: 1800 light years
Constellation: Cygnus
Date: 16 August 2005
Equipment: SXV-H9, 135mm Zeiss telephoto lens
Subframes: 30 x 300 second, unguided, no darks or flats.

The SXV-H9 works fine with a telephoto lens, even given the theoretical undersampling. The adjacent Pelican Nebula (IC 5067) can also be made out at the top of the image (click to enlarge).