The Litmus Paper Test

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The Litmus Paper Test ... a place where you'll find full resolution images of what you see here.
Wed Feb 18
Messier 42 - The Orion Nebula This was my primary target last night. I imaged about 100 frames of this and this is only a stack of 3 for color and definition. Too many of the frames together begin to wash it out as The Canon 350D is an amazing machine with crazy light capturing capabilities so it’s looking like a person doesn’t have to stack 500 frames to get a good image. This was imaged with the Celestron C6 SCT XLT OTA (acronyms: SCT; Schmidtt-Cassegrain - XLT; Celestron’s patented lens coatings - OTA; Optical Tube Assembly) On a Meade LXD75 GoTo Mount and Tripod System.

Messier 42 - The Orion Nebula

This was my primary target last night. I imaged about 100 frames of this and this is only a stack of 3 for color and definition. Too many of the frames together begin to wash it out as The Canon 350D is an amazing machine with crazy light capturing capabilities so it’s looking like a person doesn’t have to stack 500 frames to get a good image.

This was imaged with the Celestron C6 SCT XLT OTA (acronyms: SCT; Schmidtt-Cassegrain - XLT; Celestron’s patented lens coatings - OTA; Optical Tube Assembly)

On a Meade LXD75 GoTo Mount and Tripod System.

M81 & M82, NGC3077 and some funky trails “Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M81 is one of the most striking examples of a grand design spiral galaxy, with near perfect arms spiraling into the very center. Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy) is the prototype[3] nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The starburst galaxy is five times as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright as our galaxy’s center. NGC 3077 is a smaller member of the M81 Group. It looks much like an elliptical galaxy. However, it is peculiar for two reasons. First, it shows wispy edges and scattered dust clouds that are probably a result of gravitational interaction with its larger neighbors, similar to the galaxy M82. Second, this galaxy has an active nucleus.” - wiki The trails make it. I think it’s a satellite and the break in the line is the pause in frames that were taken. the wiggle in the line must be from the mount or left over vibration from activation the 10 second self timer.

M81 & M82, NGC3077 and some funky trails

“Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode’s Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. M81 is one of the most striking examples of a grand design spiral galaxy, with near perfect arms spiraling into the very center.

Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034 or the Cigar Galaxy) is the prototype[3] nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The starburst galaxy is five times as bright as the whole Milky Way and one hundred times as bright as our galaxy’s center.

NGC 3077 is a smaller member of the M81 Group. It looks much like an elliptical galaxy. However, it is peculiar for two reasons. First, it shows wispy edges and scattered dust clouds that are probably a result of gravitational interaction with its larger neighbors, similar to the galaxy M82. Second, this galaxy has an active nucleus.” - wiki

The trails make it. I think it’s a satellite and the break in the line is the pause in frames that were taken. the wiggle in the line must be from the mount or left over vibration from activation the 10 second self timer.

Messier 50 “Messier 50 (also known as M 50 or NGC 2323) is an open cluster in the constellation Monoceros. It was perhaps discovered by G.D. Cassini before 1711 and independently discovered by Charles Messier in 1772. M50 is at a distance of about 3,000 light-years away from Earth. It is described as a ‘heart-shaped’ figure.” - wiki I don’t know if I captured the heart shape. Bu the Astro-Tech AT66 did a wonderful job of capturing thousands of stars in this kick ass widefield shot of M50.

Messier 50

“Messier 50 (also known as M 50 or NGC 2323) is an open cluster in the constellation Monoceros. It was perhaps discovered by G.D. Cassini before 1711 and independently discovered by Charles Messier in 1772. M50 is at a distance of about 3,000 light-years away from Earth. It is described as a ‘heart-shaped’ figure.” - wiki

I don’t know if I captured the heart shape. Bu the Astro-Tech AT66 did a wonderful job of capturing thousands of stars in this kick ass widefield shot of M50.

Sat Feb 14
*Spider First of all, I just want to let you know that I am not a fan of spiders at all. I understand their place in nature, I just don’t understand their place in my apartment. This little guy was on the inside of the window, sunning himself, or just enjoying the view. Seeing how I have a new camera, little dude just got posted on the internet and is now world famous! *no spiders were hurt before, during, or after this photo session.

*Spider

First of all, I just want to let you know that I am not a fan of spiders at all. I understand their place in nature, I just don’t understand their place in my apartment. This little guy was on the inside of the window, sunning himself, or just enjoying the view. Seeing how I have a new camera, little dude just got posted on the internet and is now world famous!


*no spiders were hurt before, during, or after this photo session.

Mt. Mansfield - The Chin On the morning of February 14th, 2009. looks can be decieving. I’m guessing the wind was moving through at about 50mph or more at the top. Have fun with that.

Mt. Mansfield - The Chin

On the morning of February 14th, 2009. looks can be decieving. I’m guessing the wind was moving through at about 50mph or more at the top. Have fun with that.

Sunrise - 02-14-2009 Just like to say that I’m so friggin’ psyched I saved up for a Canon 350D. It rules. Have another sunrise shot. Compliments of the new camera.

Sunrise - 02-14-2009

Just like to say that I’m so friggin’ psyched I saved up for a Canon 350D. It rules. Have another sunrise shot. Compliments of the new camera.

Tue Feb 10
02.10.2009 - MoonSet over Mt. Mansfield Nose Took a series of about 10 shots and about 5 turned out. This was the best of the 5. Kodak C743 0.5 sec exp. ISO 80 @ f/4.8. I’m glad I’ve been carrying the tripod with me to be able to take pics at work. If I end up seeing some thing I just mount the camera on the mini tripod, power up the camera, adjust some settings, get out of the snowcat, snap a few shots, get back in, go back to work, come home after work, import pics, and then post some images.

02.10.2009 - MoonSet over Mt. Mansfield Nose

Took a series of about 10 shots and about 5 turned out. This was the best of the 5. Kodak C743 0.5 sec exp. ISO 80 @ f/4.8. I’m glad I’ve been carrying the tripod with me to be able to take pics at work. If I end up seeing some thing I just mount the camera on the mini tripod, power up the camera, adjust some settings, get out of the snowcat, snap a few shots, get back in, go back to work, come home after work, import pics, and then post some images.

Thu Feb 5
Sunspot #1010 NOAA had every one running for their solar telescopes a couple of weeks ago with announcement of a new Sunspot. #1010 was short-lived, too short to be a part of new Solar Cycle #24. It appeared for about 48 hours and then dissipated quickly. I was able to faintly capture the small grouping as it moved across the facing solar plane. Look closely, it’s there. 90mm x 1200mm Seben Mak-Cass, Celestron Solar filter with afocal method, etc.

Sunspot #1010

NOAA had every one running for their solar telescopes a couple of weeks ago with announcement of a new Sunspot. #1010 was short-lived, too short to be a part of new Solar Cycle #24. It appeared for about 48 hours and then dissipated quickly. I was able to faintly capture the small grouping as it moved across the facing solar plane. Look closely, it’s there. 90mm x 1200mm Seben Mak-Cass, Celestron Solar filter with afocal method, etc.

Saturn I set up at 4:15am on Wednesday morning under some thin cloud cover, with the temps hovering around zero, thinking I might be able to pull down sufficient amounts of light for some pictures. Deep Space objects were out of the question due to conditions and I had not taken any pictures of Saturn for about 2 months. I don’t know if it’s me, my focuser, or the camera, or the conditions, but I just can’t seem to get a good image of Saturn these days. I haven’t been impressed since I switched from the Orion SP130 Reflector. I don’t know why.

Saturn

I set up at 4:15am on Wednesday morning under some thin cloud cover, with the temps hovering around zero, thinking I might be able to pull down sufficient amounts of light for some pictures. Deep Space objects were out of the question due to conditions and I had not taken any pictures of Saturn for about 2 months.

I don’t know if it’s me, my focuser, or the camera, or the conditions, but I just can’t seem to get a good image of Saturn these days. I haven’t been impressed since I switched from the Orion SP130 Reflector. I don’t know why.

Wed Jan 28
Messier 45 - The Pleiades Astro-Tech AT66 ED APO. Meade LXD75 Mount & Tripod. 20mm GSO Superview Eyepiece. Kodak C743 7.1mp Digital Camera. 3 Frames: 2@4sec, 1@2sec. Afocal with BC&F Astro-Engineering Eyepiece Camera Mount. It was amazingly clear last night. Great transparency, all around good viewing. Great night to have a night off and to be a telesocpe owner. Spent about three and a half hours out until it was just down around zero. I got tired and was starting to feel the need for sleep.I could have imaged until the wee hours if I could have just stayed awake enough to fight off the soon-to-be sub-zero temps. I decided bed was sounding a little more enticing. Plus I knew I had a bunch of M45 frames to edit. I took about 40 frames total and haven’t gone through them all. I took the first three off the stack to make this image.

Messier 45 - The Pleiades

Astro-Tech AT66 ED APO. Meade LXD75 Mount & Tripod. 20mm GSO Superview Eyepiece. Kodak C743 7.1mp Digital Camera. 3 Frames: 2@4sec, 1@2sec. Afocal with BC&F Astro-Engineering Eyepiece Camera Mount.

It was amazingly clear last night. Great transparency, all around good viewing. Great night to have a night off and to be a telesocpe owner. Spent about three and a half hours out until it was just down around zero. I got tired and was starting to feel the need for sleep.I could have imaged until the wee hours if I could have just stayed awake enough to fight off the soon-to-be sub-zero temps. I decided bed was sounding a little more enticing. Plus I knew I had a bunch of M45 frames to edit. I took about 40 frames total and haven’t gone through them all. I took the first three off the stack to make this image.

Sun Jan 25
Sunrise 01-25-2009 I’m glad we get to see this every 24 hours. It never gets old. Many picture opportunities. Every one of them different. Taken on the butter box feature (nice and flat) with a sweet new Celestron mini photo tripod in the Midway Park at Stowe.

Sunrise 01-25-2009

I’m glad we get to see this every 24 hours. It never gets old. Many picture opportunities. Every one of them different.

Taken on the butter box feature (nice and flat) with a sweet new Celestron mini photo tripod in the Midway Park at Stowe.

Sat Jan 24
Uranus 11-29-2008 I had taken these shots with the brand new Celestron C6 XLT and soon after had a hard drive crash that caused a total loss of all my work leading up to this point (april 08 - dec-08). I was going through the images I had saved from the website and found that I had two Uranus pics that I hadn’t finished editing. Nice find. They’re not the highest resolution, but I think capturing a defined edge of a planet that’s 18-20 AU away from Earth with a 150mm aperature telescope is pretty respectable. Edited with Registax4 and The GIMP for Linux. Shot with a Kodak C743.

Uranus 11-29-2008

I had taken these shots with the brand new Celestron C6 XLT and soon after had a hard drive crash that caused a total loss of all my work leading up to this point (april 08 - dec-08). I was going through the images I had saved from the website and found that I had two Uranus pics that I hadn’t finished editing. Nice find.

They’re not the highest resolution, but I think capturing a defined edge of a planet that’s 18-20 AU away from Earth with a 150mm aperature telescope is pretty respectable. Edited with Registax4 and The GIMP for Linux. Shot with a Kodak C743.

Wed Jan 21
Ursa Major This is my first attempt at wide-field long term exposure with a simple Kodak C743 7.1mp digital camera. This is a stack of 4 frames at f/2.7 ISO 80, 4 seconds of exposure for each frame. This was also the first time I had used the Orion Mini-EQ tripod for photography. I just mounted the camera and pointed it near the Zenith and Ursa Major and began doing a series of 4 second captures which I edited in The GIMP and aligned in Registax4.

Ursa Major

This is my first attempt at wide-field long term exposure with a simple Kodak C743 7.1mp digital camera. This is a stack of 4 frames at f/2.7 ISO 80, 4 seconds of exposure for each frame.

This was also the first time I had used the Orion Mini-EQ tripod for photography. I just mounted the camera and pointed it near the Zenith and Ursa Major and began doing a series of 4 second captures which I edited in The GIMP and aligned in Registax4.

Tue Jan 20
01-20-2009 Sun Obscured by Clouds This happens rather infrequently. The Sun is being obscured by snow and light cloud cover in the atmosphere. There is a cloud layer above the sun that soon takes the view of it for a while. By 9 am it was a cloudless morning. Shortly after 10:30am clouds began to take over again. There are a few more shots of this 15 minutes of Sun that I will post.

01-20-2009 Sun Obscured by Clouds

This happens rather infrequently. The Sun is being obscured by snow and light cloud cover in the atmosphere. There is a cloud layer above the sun that soon takes the view of it for a while. By 9 am it was a cloudless morning. Shortly after 10:30am clouds began to take over again. There are a few more shots of this 15 minutes of Sun that I will post.

Sun Jan 18
01-17-08 Sunrise at Lookout You can see it snowing on the peak across the valley. I don’t know the name of it, but should. This was probably the only time the sun was even close to visible through out the day. Which is fine, snow is good, the clouds looks exceptionally eerie with the low ceiling and the thin band of sunlight peering through. Had I been at lower elevation, I had never seen this, as probably most who didn’t have the chance to be at 3000’ at 7am on this day at this time. I’m rambling. Stay tuned for the next picture.

01-17-08 Sunrise at Lookout

You can see it snowing on the peak across the valley. I don’t know the name of it, but should. This was probably the only time the sun was even close to visible through out the day. Which is fine, snow is good, the clouds looks exceptionally eerie with the low ceiling and the thin band of sunlight peering through. Had I been at lower elevation, I had never seen this, as probably most who didn’t have the chance to be at 3000’ at 7am on this day at this time. I’m rambling. Stay tuned for the next picture.