Astrophotography > Color Astrophotography Gallery
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Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae
Looking toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy we are treated to numerous glowing patches of gas and dust. The three most prominent patches of nebulosity in this image are known , from L to R, as NGC 6559, M8, and M20. The large nebula M8 (M for Charles Messier) is commonly known as the Lagoon Nebula. The blue and red nebula at the top right is M20 and is commonly known as the Trifid Nebula. We are looking toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy in this image and the distances to these objects is approximately 4,000 light years. M8 and M20 are beautiful sights in a common pair of binoculars in the summer sky. From the northern hemisphere they lie due south after sunset in the summer months and are in the constellation of Sagittarius.
Technical: Approximately 90 minutes of exposure data captured with a modified Canon t1i through a Takahashi 85 FSQ riding on an Astro-Physics Mach1 mount. Captured during the Green Bank Star Quest 2011 in July.
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Scorpius
The most colorful constellation in the Milky Way, Scorpius shines brightly over New Mexico Skies.
Technical: This base image is a Provia transparency taken with a Pentax 6x7 and 55mm lens with a one hour exposure at f4. There are additional exposures of individual objects blended into the base image from various instruments and including both film and digital captures.
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Horsehead Nebula from Winter Star Party 2010
A wide field view of the glorious Horsehead Nebula area in the constellation Orion. The area is approximately 1600 light years away from Earth.
Technical Details: 2 hours of data acquired with a modified Canon T1i camera through a Takahashi FSQ 85 with focal reducer while riding on an Astro-Physics Mach 1 mount. Taken at the Winter Star Party 2010.
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Eta Carina Nebula
Eta Carinae Nebula is the largest in the Milky Way Galaxy. This image was taken while attending the Winter Star Party near Marathon, FL in February 2010.
Technical details: Images were acquired with a modified Canon T1i on a Takahashi 85 FSQ with focal reducer. The tracking mount used was an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO. Images were converted in Adobe Light Room and then combined in Images Plus and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop CS4.
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The Great Nebula of Orion
The Great Nebula of Orion is very inspirational to any visual or photographic astronomer. While viewing M42 during a recent public observing night I was inspired to come back and image the object. The area is magnificent in structure and dynamic range. What I enjoy most is that the area affords the astrophotographic artist a great deal of interpretation. So here is my interpretation from March 2010 and I hope you enjoy it.
Technical Details: Image was captured with a modified Canon T1I through the Donald C. Martin Observatory's Celestron 14" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope riding atop an Astro-Physics 1200 GTO mount. A Lumicon Giant Easy Guider was also utilized in reducing the focal ratio to f7. Three individual captures were blended to make this composite mosaic. Two individual frames for a two panel (top/bottom) mosaic and one frame to preserve the dynamic range of the core of M42 and the Trapezium stars. Approximately 50 minutes of data for each frame at ISO 6400 and one minute individual exposures.
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Omega Centauri Globular Cluster
The grand-daddy of them all. The globular cluster in Centaurus is the biggest and brightest in the Milky Way Galaxy. It is estimated that over 10 million stars are rotating around the cluster's core. The cluster is designated as NGC 5139 on star charts and lies over 18 thousand light years away. The cluster is 150 light years across and is estimated to be over 12 billion years old! It is a glorious sight in a telescope and is best viewed from southern latitudes. This image was taken during the 2010 Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys.
Technical details: Images were acquired with a modified Canon T1i on a Takahashi 85 FSQ with focal reducer. The tracking mount used was an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO. Images were converted in Adobe Light Room 3.0, combined with DeepSky Stacker, and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop CS5. There are approximately 60 images combined with varying ISOs to obtain the final image.
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The Seven Sisters; Pleiades
Technical details: Images were acquired with a modified Canon 450D on a Takahashi 85 FSQ with focal reducer. The tracking mount used was an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO. 30 images of 4 minutes duration were converted in Adobe Light Room and then combined in Images Plus and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop CS
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The Great Orion Nebula
The Great Nebula of Orion sits just below the Running Man blue refection in the sword of Orion.
Technical Details: This image is largely taken from data acquired at the Winter Star Party 2009 with some data added to the core of the Orion nebula taken from multiple CCD cameras over the years. The data is mostly comprised of Canon 450D data. The telescope was a TMB 92SS on an Astro-Physics 400GTO mount.
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Flaming Star in the constellation Aurigae
This patch of sky is in the constellation Auriga. It is one of the most colorful regions of the Milky Way. The large nebulosity on the right is the Flaming Star nebula also known as IC 405 and surrounds the star AE Auriga. Also in this field are IC 410 (center left) and IC 417 (upper left.) The image data was captured during the Almost Heaven Star Party in September 2009 from Spruce Knob, Wv.
Technical details: Images were acquired with a modified Canon 450D on a Takahashi 85 FSQ with focal reducer. The tracking mount used was an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO. 30 images of 4 minutes duration were converted in Adobe Light Room and then combined in Images Plus and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop CS4.
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Venus Transit 2004
The planet Venus slides across the solar disc at sunrise at Myrtle Beach, SC.
Technical details: Taken when film had the edge in dynamic range, Fuji NPS 160 film was used to capture the entire scene at 1/500 exposure and then scanned on a Nikon 8000 scanner. The camera used was a Pentax 6x7 through an Astro-Physics f6 Traveler telescope with a focal length of 600mm. A Wimberly Mount also proved to be most useful. The date of this unique astronomical event was June 8, 2004.
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Milky Way Over Balanced Rock
The Milky Way Galaxy arches over the famous Balanced Rock in Arches National Park, UT in June 2010. A wonderful location to see ancient light from 20,000 years ago streaming down onto ancient earth rock
This image is not available as a fine art print.
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Andromeda Galaxy 2010
It is always a pleasure to revisit the Great Andromeda Galaxy with different imaging gear from year to year. In 2010 we revisited the galaxy with the new Astro-Physics 130EDF GT refractor from the glorious dark skies of The Mountain Institute on Spruce Knob in West Virginia during the Almost Heaven Star Party. The galaxy is in our local neighborhood of galaxies and is on a collision course with our own Milky Way galaxy at some point in the very distant future. The diffuse glow from the galaxy is caused by billions of stars shining throughout the galactic disk. Andromeda is a spiral galaxy and is approximately 2,000,000 light years from Earth.
Technical Details: Approximately 2 hours of data acquired with a modified Canon T1i camera. Exposures primarily 5 minutes at ISO 1600 with a few at 10 minutes at ISO 800. Images processed in Light Room, Deep Sky Stacker, and Photoshop.
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The Great Andromeda Galaxy (Tak 85FSQ and AP130EDF)
Andromeda Galaxy is approximately 2.5 million light years from Earth and is the farthest object one can see with the naked eye. Yes, believe it or not, under dark skies this object is quite easy to find. There are two satellite galaxies in this image that accompany M31 on its nightly trek across the sky.
Technical details: Images were acquired with a modified Canon 450D on a Takahashi 85 FSQ with focal reducer and Astro-Physics 130EDF with focal reducer. Images were combined in Photoshop. The tracking mount used was an Astro-Physics Mach1 GTO. 30 images of 4 minutes duration (Tak FSQ) and 25 images of 5 minutes at ISO 800 (AP 130) were converted in Adobe Light Room and then combined in Deep Sky Stacker and enhanced in Adobe Photoshop CS5.
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Solar Disk in Hydrogen Alpha Light
The solar disk in specially filtered hydrogen alpha light.
Technical: Image acquired with Televue 102 refractor and Coronado SolarMax 60mm filter.
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Moon
Earth's Moon on November 5, 2011.
Details: Imaged with Astro-Physics 130EDF refractor on Astro-Physics Mach1 GOTO mount with Canon T1i camera and AP 2x barlow.