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(Early images - caution some are rough
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Astrophotography with limited time and money
June 29, 2008
Welcome to my website about unconventional astrophotography. Like many others, I have enjoyed astronomy and observing the night sky. What makes my astrophotography unconventional is that my equipment is modest and exposure time is constrained due to the need to travel to dark sites.
I became interested in the possibility of taking astronomical pictures after holding a digital camera to an eyepiece (afocal projection) and taking some pictures of the moon and Jupiter. In hindsight they were poor pictures, but I was intrigued with the possibilities. Since then I have taken many images and a number of them are presented on this website. Some are with modified webcams and some with a dedicated astrophotography CCD Camera - my Artemis285
There are many images on this site. I have deliberately left earlier images to help show improvement to the more recent images - some are archived where I have re-imaged an object. Replaced images are still available in Archives (available in sidebar). Newest Images links are gathered on one page for convenience (also available on sidebar). Finally, I have a Complete Image Index with links to all images organized by Messier Catalog or NGC/IC or other (solar system, lunar, other object catalog).
CURRENT Featured IMAGES:
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I found a group of unconventional astro-imagers in the QuickCam and Unconventional Imaging Astronomy Group, known as QCUIAG. They also have a very active and helpful discussion on Yahoo! Groups. With the help of instructions provided by QCUIAG members, I modified some relatively inexpensive webcams for long exposure imaging and began taking images of the night sky. Currently I use a 16 bit Camera - an Artemis 285 based on the Sony ICX285 CCD.
Every new image is a learning experience, not only with the mechanics of the activities and equipment, but also in seeing more of the night sky's objects than ever before. Of course it is exciting to see many different objects in the heavens through your telescope or binocular, but with patience and growing experience imaging these objects, you are able to observe so much more. As an example, my 5" Maksutov telescope allows me to "see" about Mag 11.5 to Mag 12.5 stars on good nights; I can routinely image to Mag 16.5 to Mag 17.5 stars in those same conditions. That's about 100 times fainter than I can "see" through the eyepiece. With my larger telescope 8" SCT (Celestron C8 on AS Mount) I can get about 1 to 1.5 Mag better.
So if you want to take your observations in astronomy to another level but are shy of taking the plunge with very expensive camera and telescopic equipment, you may want to try Astro-Imaging on a budget. Please see my equipment page for more details on imaging with modest equipment.
Let me know if you have any questions - webmaster@jthommes.com