Astrophotography

Although it's impossible to do serious astrophotography with my equipment (a Meade 4.5" reflector and a Sony 1.3 Megapixel camera) I think you'll still be impressed with what I've put together. The method used to captures these images is amazingly simple:

1. Point the telescope at the object you want. 2. Shove the camera lens into the telescope eyepiece. 3. Click.

It's so simple that it actually works! The only difficulty arises when you're taking picutures of dim objects, which usually includes most planets and stars. In these cases the camera samples the image first and determines you need a loooong exposure, usually 2 seconds. This is much too long for a planetary picture and will result in blurring and overexposure. To "fake" the camera into taking a shorter exposure you'll have to point a bright flashlight into the camera, sample the bright light, then hold that setting as you then point the camera into the telescope eyepiece and take a picture.

The pictures

AstroCollage of the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn and the Orion Nebula	Comet Ikeya-Zhang in 2002
The Crescent Moon	Full Moon - I stretched the contrast on this image to better show details
Half Moon	Jupiter. Look closely and see the equitorial cloud bands!
The Full Moon	Saturn