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Photo
of the middle of our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation of Sagittarius. Photo
taken at Elanda Point on the Sunshine Coast camping in July 1995. The photographs
I took this night were magnificent the starlight on the prints was amazing for
such short exposures. Camera on tripod with a 50mm lens & 20 second exposure
using Kodak 1000 film. |
Our
Beautiful Star (The Sun) setting over the Southport Broadwater in Queensland on
any day of the week, month or year. Photo taken on our boat one beautiful week-end.
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Photo
of the two pointers to the Cross Alpha & Beta Centauri & Crux (The Southern
Cross) also taken on the same night at Elanda Point on the Sunshine Coast using
the same set-up. |
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In
1996 & 1997 we were blessed with two spectacular comets that graced our Southern
Skies. The first was Comet Hyakutake a absolutely beautiful sight with its huge
gas tail spreading out behind it in the early morning sky. I took this photo from
my back garden in Ashmore at 2.45am on the morning of 25th March 1996. |
Orion "The
Hunter" photo taken in 1997 at dark skies at the Whitsunday Islands on a
beach full of mosquitos but I got a whole roll of great photos so it was worth
it :) Camera on tripod with a 50 mm lens & 20 second exposure using Kodak
Royal 1000 film.
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The
magnificent sight of Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997 took everybody by surprise as usually
you only get to see one bright naked eye comet once in a lifetime. I took many
photos of this comet but this one is my favourite. It shows the comet with the
pretty Hyades open star cluster in Taurus. A huge thunderstorm rolled in minutes
after I took this image at Mt Tamborine. Both photos were taken with my camera
on a tripod using a 50 mm lens & 30 second exposure. |
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This
photo shows that spectacular event called "Earthshine" on a Waning Crescent
Moon on the 25th March 1998. On this morning at 3.20 am there was a very close
conjunction with the planet Venus. When the Moon is a small crescent the light
from the Earth reflects back onto the Moons surface lighting up the portion that
is in darkness. I used my camera on a tripod with a 300 mm lens & a 10 second
exposure. |
My
camera o.n a tripod |
Startrail
of the South Celestial pole area of the sky with The Large Magellanic Cloud a
satellite galaxy to our own also in the photo. I love the different colours of
the stars that show up in these photos. This photo was taken at the 1999 Astrofest
at Duckadang exposure time was 45 minutes at f1.8. |
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3 day old Waxing
Crescent Moon. As our Moon orbits Earth we get to see different portions
(or phases) of its surface lit up. Even though half the Moon is always
lit up by the Sun all the time, here on Earth we view the Moon at a
angle to the Sun. This photo was taken with my 8" (20 cm) Meade
LX 50 telescope with a camera attached to the back (prime focus photography).
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3 day old Waxing
Crescent Moon at higher magnification. We have the whole area of the
lovely Lunar Sea of Crises (Mare Crisium) in view with its smooth surface
and mountainous walls. The large crater to the south in the photo is
Crater Cleomedes a very prominent crater (126 km) in diameter.
This photo was taken with my 8" (20 cm) Meade LX 50 telescope with
a camera attached using a 25 mm eyepiece. (eyepiece projection photography)
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5
day old Waxing Crescent Moon at higher magnification.
The Three Large C raters form a wonderful view. Theophilus is the prominent
crater 100 kms in diameter with central peaks in the middle that rise
up to 1400 metres, next is Crater Cyrillus then Catharina. Above Crater
Catharina is a 480 km range called Altai Rupes with another crater at
the end called Piccolomini. This photo was taken with my 8" (20 cm)
LX 50 telescope with a camera attached using a 25 mm eyepiece.
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7
day old Moon (First Quarter)
The Moon is now 1 week old and is a quarter of the way in its orbit around
the Earth. This is the perfect time to look at the Moon with a pair of
binoculars or telescope. You will see many large & small craters all
along the terminator line (the boundary between night & day). The
two large lunar maria are Sea of Tranquillity (Mare Tranquillitatis) and
Sea of Serenity (Mare Serenitatis). Photo taken with my (20 cm) Meade
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at prime focus.
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9
day old Waxing Gibbous Moon.
Waxing means to grow bigger and that's just what's happening at this phase.
Looking to t he top of the photo (which is south on the Moon) we have
the heavily cratered lunar highlands with many large craters. Next is
Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds) with the very prominent crater called Bullialdus
(61 km). The large crater on the terminator line is the magnificent Crater
Copernicus a ringed mountain 93 km in diameter and 3760 m deep. On the
edge of Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) is Crater Plato with its very dark
smooth floor 101 km in diameter. Photo taken with my (20 cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope at prime focus.
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12
day old Moon. What comes into view now on the surface of the Moon are
the magnificent ray systems from Crater Tycho (to the top of photo) and
Crater Copernicus further down. This is light coloured material that was
thrown out at the time of impact from a asteroid or comet billions of
years ago. The fine rays were thrown over thousands of kilometres and
we see them clearly now because they are fully illuminated by the Sun
at this nearly full phase. If you have a Moon filter for your telescope
it is best to use it now at these full phases as it can b e very bright
for your eyes. Photo taken with my (20 cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope
at prime focus.
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12
day old Moon at higher magnification. In view is the brilliant Crater
Tycho. With its magnificent rays of fine material that was ejected out
at the time of impact and spreads in all directions for up to 1500 kilometres
across the Moon. What a incredible impact it must have been. It is believed
the event happened only about 1 billion years ago which is very recent
in astronomical time. Photo taken with my (20 cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope at eyepiece projection plus 2x converter.
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Beautiful
Full Moon 14 days old.
The Moon is half way in its orbit about the Earth and its position is
directly opposite the Sun in the sky, showing us its fully illuminated
disc. On a night of a full Moon the Moon rises in the east at the same
time as the Sun sets in the west. The face of the Moon has no shadows
everything is smooth, flat and bland as the light from the sun is shinning
straight on the surface. This is the best time to view the superb ray
systems of the Craters Tycho, Copernicus and Kepler. Photo taken with
my (20 cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope at prime focus.
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How I take my photographs
of the Moon and Planets.
This is a photo of my (f 10) 8" (20cm) Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope set up for taking photographs of the Moon and Planets. When
you attached a lensless camera onto the back of a telescope using a
camera adaptor this is called prime focus photography. You are then
using the telescope as a huge telephoto lens. If you insert a eyepiece
into this system this is called eyepiece projection photography.
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Two very different
views of the Full Moon on the night of the 16th July 2000 from South
East Queensland in Australia. On this evening there was a perfect alignment
between the Sun, Earth and Moon to cause a “Total Eclipse of the
Moon”. In the olden days people were terrified of a event happening
like this in the sky. But nowadays we are more educated in the workings
of our Solar System and understand what is happening and are free to
enjoy this spectacular event as our Moon enters into the shadow of the
Earth.
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“The
Night the Silvery Moon turned a Golden Globe in the Sky”
A Lunar Eclipse is one of the most wondrous astronomical events to witness
in the night sky. I enjoyed this spectacular event with a very special
person my Mum :)
All my photographs were taken with my Meade LX 50 8” (20 cm) Schmidt-Cassegrain
telescope at prime focus using Kodak Max 400 film.
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At
9.30 p.m. there was a completely normal “Full Moon” in the night
sky. Then ever so slowly a shadow started to spread on the western limb
of the Moon as it entered into the Earths shadow (penumbra). By 10.18
p.m. half the light from the surface of the Moon had been cut off.
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Just
before 11.20 p.m. just a little sliver of light was left on the eastern
limb of the Moon. Then the Moon entered fully into the shadow of the Earth
(umbra) and immediately turned this beautiful soft golden colour in the
sky which was a fantastic sight to see. It stayed like this for over 1
hour then the light started creeping back onto the Moons surface. (The
colour is caused by sunlight refracted through the Earths atmosphere and
softly lighting up the surface of the Moon).
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By 1.34 a.m. now
the 17th July the Moon continued to slowly move back out of the Earths
shadow (penumbra) and half of the Moons surface could be seen again.
By 2.45 a.m. the eclipse was all over and the beautiful silvery Moon
was back in our sky.
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‘Transit of Venus’ 8th June 2004 on Tamborine
Mountain
After arriving on the mountain in light rain! We were extremely blessed
that the clouds parted for just one hour to view and photograph this
very special event. We missed first contact but what excitement when
it finally cleared and saw the black silhouette of Venus against the
brilliant golden orb of our mighty star the Sun! Fantastic!!!
Many people driving past got a chance to see this maybe once in a lifetime
phenomenon through our telescopes and Colin’s large binoculars.
Please see below some photographs taken with my Canon Digital 300D camera
using a Meade 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope fitted with a Thousand
Oats solar filter. All the images were taken at prime focus some with
a F 6.3 focal reducer inserted for the full images of the sun. Exposure
times were 1/100th second set at 100 ISO. What a wonderful experience
can’t wait until 2012 to do it all again.......Best wishes to all
Noeleen :)
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