By: Sam Pitts (samsastro.com)
| Telescope / Lens | 35mm f/2 Canon at f/2.8 |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on Losmandy G11 |
| Camera | Canon F-1 with Bright Screen & Angle B magnifier |
| Filters | UV |
| Film | Kodak ED200 (Slide Film) Slide #05 |
| Exposure | 120 seconds; manual guiding FS/78 |
| Processing | Pushed, Scanned – 2400 dpi, Photoshop |
| Date | June 19, 2004 |
| Location | Eagles Rest, south of Dexter, Oregon |
| Conditions | 2500′ magnitude 6 Skies; Clear, steady |
| Telescope / Lens | 50 f/1.4 Canon Lens at f/2.8 |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on Losmandy G11 |
| Camera | Canon F-1 with Bright Screen & Angle B magnifier |
| Filters | 52mm UV |
| Film | Provia 400F (Slide Film) #10 |
| Exposure | 15 minutes; manual guiding Takahashi FS/78 |
| Processing | Slide Scanned – 2400 dpi, Photoshop |
| Date | September 26, 2003 |
| Location | Eagles Rest, south of Dexter, Oregon |
| Conditions | 2557′ magnitude 6 Skies; Clear, steady |
M 31 (NGC224) Andromeda Galaxy
The Andromeda Galaxy is readily visible from a dark sky location as a fuzzy patch of light covering approximately 3+ degrees or 6 times the width of our moon. Andromeda is approximately 2.5 million light years from Earth and 220,000 light years across. Making it much larger than our own Milky Way galaxy at only 100,000 lights years across. In about 5 billion years both our Milky Way galaxy and Andromeda will collide and begin to coalesce, perhaps evolving into an even larger elliptical type galaxy. This image reveals much detail and numerous globular star clusters and nebulae are visible. Amazing for just a 3.2 diameter refractor, but Thomas Back (TMB) was a primer Telescope Maker and his designs live on.
| Telescope / Lens | TMB 80 mm f/6 with Tele-Vue .8 reducer f/4.8 384 mm |
| Mount Type | Astrophysics 1200 |
| Camera | SBIG ST10XME |
| Filters | Astrodon LRGB e-series filters (generation 1) |
| Film | CCD |
| Exposure | 210 minutes (3.5 Hours) LRGB (L=120 min (10 min. x 9 & 5 min. x 6) RGB= 1.5 Hours. (10 min. subs) |
| Processing | CCDSoft, CCDStack, AIP, Photoshop CS2 |
| Date | 09/21/2009 |
| Location | Snow Peak, S/E of Cottage Grove, Oregon 122° 52′ 35″ W, 43° 31′ 21″N |
| Conditions | 4658′ elevation, magnitude 6 Skies; Clear ; Humidity 65-80% 51 degrees, wind 0-3 M.P.H. |
| Telescope / Lens | 50 f/1.4 Canon Camera Lens stopped down |
| Mount Type | Piggyback on G11 (Stepper) |
| Camera | Canon F-1 with Bright Screen & Angle B magnifier |
| Filters | 112mm UV |
| Film | Kodak E200 (Slide Film) |
| Exposure | 10 minutes; manual guiding FS/78 |
| Processing | Push 1, Scanned – 2400 dpi, Photoshop |
| Date | July 2003-Milky Way; Diamond Peak 8/2006 |
| Location | Panther Creek, south of Veneta, Oregon |
| Conditions | 1200′ magnitude 6 Skies; Clear, steady |
| Telescope / Lens | TMB 80 mm f/ 6 with Tele-Vue .8 Reducer TRF2008 / reduced TMB to f/4.8 – 384 mm Focal Length |
| Mount Type | Astrophysics 1200 |
| Camera | SBIG ST10XME |
| Filters | Astrodon LRGB e-series of balanced filters (generation 1) 9nm HA |
| Film | CCD |
| Exposure | 345 minutes (5.75 Hours) HaLRGB (Ha=50 min; L=145 min; RGB= 150 min.; (5 min. & 10 min. sub-images) |
| Processing | CCDSoft, CCDStack, AIP, Photoshop CS2 |
| Date | 09/19/2009 |
| Location | Snow Peak, S/E of Cottage Grove, Oregon 122° 52′ 35″ W, 43° 31′ 21″N |
| Conditions | 4658′ elevation, magnitude 6+ Skies; Clear ; |
M 33 (NGC 598) Triangulum Galaxy
M33 is visible to the naked eye from a very dark sky site, Bortle 3 or better. The Triangulum Galaxy is a very challenging naked eye object but it can be seen. M33 is a Type SC galaxy belonging to the local group, 0.9 mpc or 3.1 Million Light Years away. This image was taken with a TMB triplet CNC APO 80mm f/6 with a TeleVue .8 reducer / flattener (TRF2008). The full resolution image actually reveals the hint of structure and stars within the many red nebula knots shown throughout its arms. These Nebula (Red areas) are star forming areas much like the Great Orion Nebula (M42) and Eagle Nebula (M16). I had taken a much shorter image years ago with an Orion ED 80 and wanted to really capture more detail. You can also see several background galaxies in this image.
The bright Red nebula (upper right portion) is NGC 604. NGC form the largest known HII region currently known. The nebula spans 1500 light years. M33 itself is approximately 60,000 light years in diameter, home to 40 billion stars. Our own Milky Way (100,000 LY diameter) is estimated to have 400 Billion stars.