Dave's Astrophotography

This has nothing to do with word origins or language, but I am also an amateur astronomer and just getting started with serious astrophotography.

Several friends have asked that I post some of my astrophotographs to the web, so I’ve added a section to the website to do just that. I’ll also probably add occasional blog posts on what works and doesn’t work about my photography of the night skies.

Bear in mind that I’m still pretty new at this and am refining my techniques, so most of these images are flawed in one way or another. But I’m learning.

The Pleiades, a.k.a., the Seven Sisters, is an open star cluster in Taurus. The stars are all young, less than 100 million years, and were once closer together. It’s no longer an active star-forming region. The nebulosity is not a remnant of its star-forming days, but is merely a dust cloud the cluster is passing through. These are hot and fast-burning stars, expected to last only another 250 million years or so. They’re about 450 light years away.

Shot 24 October 2009; Mt. Tamalpais State Park, California; ISO 800, Exp 60 min (24 x 2.5 minutes), f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is. Post-processing with ImagesPlus 3.0 and Photoshop CS4. 

M57, the Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula in the constellation Lyra. The ring is an expanding cloud of gas blown off a central red giant star, which cannot be seen in this image. It’s about 5,000 light years distant.

This isn’t a great image. I didn’t have my scope aligned well and there was considerable star trailing. Seeing wasn’t great that night and there was considerable light from a first quarter moon. I’ll have to shoot M57 again with better alignment and conditions.

Shot 26 August 2009; Mt. Tamalpais State Park, California; ISO 800, Exp 60 min, 30 sec (13 x 2.5 minutes, 14 x 2.0 minutes), f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is. Post-processing with ImagesPlus 3.0 and Photoshop CS4.

The big boy of the solar system. Not the greatest image; the focus is a bit off. But it’s the best planetary image I’ve done so far.

Shot 19 August 2009; Mt. Tamalpais State Park, California; ISO 800, Exp 1/200 sec, f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is. Post-processing with ImagesPlus 3.0 and Photoshop CS4.

Emission nebula and star cluster in Sagittarius: M17 (NGC 6618). Distance is approximately 6,000 light-years. Also known as the Swan Nebula, the Horseshoe Nebula, and the Lobster Nebula.

Shot 18-19 July 2009; Mt. Tamalpais State Park, California; ISO 800, Exp 1 hr, 32.5 min (37x2.5m), f/5.2, Canon EOS 5D & Televue NP127is. Calibration, alignment, & stacking with Images Plus 3.0; other post-processing with Photoshop CS4.