
Canon F1, Tokina 300mm F/2.8, Piggyback, Takahashi FS78 Guide Guide scope
Losmandy G11, E200 pushed 2 -3
Andromeda Galaxy (M31) to the right, just above trees.
By: Sam Pitts (samsastro.com)
Comet McNaught C/2006 P1 was a great naked eye comet. However in Oregon, it appeared while we had a snow storm in Eugene. The above image was taken at Fern Ridge Reservoir with thousands of Canadian Geese flying about, some of them appear in this image. The comet was very close to the sun at this latitude and very difficult to image.
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. |