LX200 - Astrophotographs and CCD Pics

My Telescopes:
10" LX200, shown here on it's permanent pier mount all setup for an imaging session with guidescope, 201XT, and (in this pic) Starlight Express MX5-C. The necessary cableling tends to get messy! The focus control box is just in front of the monitor, and the battery(s) are used to power the 201XT and the dew-heater.
Orion Optics (U.K.) 12 " Newtonian mounted on my home-made GEM. The box below the tripod is the drive controller. Tripod in the lefthand pic is a bit on high side for this scope as it was made for a refractor, that in the righthand pic was made especially for this scope. Middle pic shows a guidescope attached.
For solar work I use this Vixen 90mm refractor, the filter is full-aperture made from Baader Astrosolar film. In the background on the righthand pic is a 120mm Konus refractor also with a filter.

Images below were aquired with a 416XT CCD camera

1st quarter moon, mosaic of 12 frames. This version is reduced in size from the original. I used PaintShop Pro V5 to create the mosaic, the latest version has a set of very powerful Layer functions.
Moon 1 day from full on 28/04/99, mosaic of 20 frames. Reduced to 1024x1024. The moon was rising as the series of images were taken, result: last image was brighter than the first making it difficult to match the edges.
M92, 4 x 30 secs. Exposures were too short at 30 secs, the background noise difficult to erradicate. 2 minute exposures are much better in this regard.
M13, 5 x 30 secs. Same raw image data fed through a Lucy-Richardson de-convolution filter, a distinct improvement!.
M57, 8 x 2 minutes. A much better signal-noise ratio is evident in this image with longer 2 min (201XT autoguided) exposure times.
Two images of M57, both 3x2mins, the upper one is un-filtered, the lower through an UHC nebula filter. The stars in the filtered image are much fainter yet the planetary nebula is essentially unaffected.
Higher magnification (used a barlow), no IR filter on this one shows how the stars bloat.
M64, the 'Blackeye' galaxy in coma berenices, average of three 5 min exposures
(all subsequent 416XT images in this panel taken after mirror lock modification)
M13, 5 minutes.
M3, 201XT guided 20 minute exposure
M87 (and NGC4478 at right), showing prominent jet from the core of the galaxy. 10 min exposure.
NGC4565 edge-on spriral in Coma. 10 min exposure.
Sunspots 25th June 1999, 90mm refractor, Mylar filter, 5ms exposure.

The Sony DSC is a bit tricky to attach to a telescope, my solution was a rather complex clamp adapter which holds an eyepiece for afocal projection.

Eclipse 1999 Images

Equipment was a 90mm Vixen Refractor fitted with a Mylar filter, a Sony digital camera mounted on a separate tripod and using afocal projection through 13mm and 26mm eyepieces. The digital camera is ideal for this job - easy to setup and instant feedback of results. The Sony DSC1 is a bit dated now having a resolution of 640x480 pixels. My observing location was Macclesfield UK.
Top:- The sun using afocal projection with a 13mm VixenWA eyepiece, some reflection from the rear lens element is obvious (I should have shielded the gap between camera and eyepiece!) but the sunspots are clearly seen.

Below:- moment of maximum eclipse here in Macclesfield (about 90%), the small black patch of the moon's shadow is visible.

Sequence of shots using afocal projection and a 26mm eyepiece, images reduced a little from the originals. The last image of the set is exactly at maximum eclipse for this location. There was the inevitable thin cloud to deal with which caused the differing brightness.

Sunspots

90mm Vixen Refractor fitted with a Baader Astrasolar filter, Sony digital camera in custom mount using afocal projection through 22mm Vixen Plossl eyepiece.
Two images of the sun (one through a diagonal), showing major sunspot groups on 18th Nov 1999. Enormous amount of additional detail could be seen visually, the Baader filter being much superior to mylar.

Moon with Sony Digital Camera

12" f/5.3 Newtonian, afocal projection. Whilst perhaps not in the same class as a true astro CCD camera these shots so show you can get pleasing images with an off-the-shelf digital camera. The Sony DCF1 is only 640x480 pixels. The difficulty is mounting it on the telescope, and for this I used a special bracket that clamped it to the eyepiece. The wide-angle lens on the camera is not removable so afocal projection using an eyepiece is the only option. Vignetting is evident because of this and much better results would be obtained if it were possible to remove it and use prime-focus.
This image is afocal projection with a 22mm Plossl eyepiece.
These three shots were taken with the 22mm Plossl plus barlow lens.

416XT Pics taken with Standard 35mm Camera Lenses.

Listed below are a few pictures taken with the 416XT and various 35mm camera lenses (on 8th August 1998 - full moon, high thin cloud). I didn't focus any of these shots - just stuck the lenses on the mount set at infinity. Conditions were far from ideal, there was a bright full moon and pesky high stratus cloud.

LYRAWide-angle shot of the constellation of Lyra, taken with a 28-80 zoom (set at 28mm @ f/16).
M57Taken with a Tamron 80-210 zoom (set at 210mm @ f/16). The Ring Nebula is the small doughnut just left of center.
M27Also taken with a Tamron 80-210 zoom (set at 210mm @ f/16). Thin cloud was getting worse!
Full MoonMain picture taken at 210mm, inset taken at 80mm to show difference in scale with the zoom lens.

Better conditions on 27/8/98 produced these pictures.

M31The Great Andomeda Galaxy, median combine of three 2 minute exposures. 80mm (Tamron 80-210 zoom)
North America Nebula28mm lens, median combine of three 5 minute exposures.

Also on 27/8/98, images of Jupiter and Saturn taken through the 10" LX200 at prime focus. Although small, there's a lot of detail visible in these images. The Cassini division is clearly visible in Saturn's rings, and the GRS can be seen on the surface of jupiter. Three of jupiter's moons are visible (you may have to adjust your monitor as they are a bit dim compared to Jupiter). Titan and 2 other moons are also in the raw image with Saturn, but they are so much dimmer that they will not show up on this image.

30/8/98, A comparison of yellow and UHC filters on Jupiter. Images are composites of 5 exposures (70 and 180 ms respectively, exposures median combined), the result was then un-sharp masked. Jupiter's moons have been enhanced a little (brightened) in these shots.

1/9/98, I managed to catch the reappearance of Io from behind Jupiter on the night of 1st of September. Seeing was fairly awful - dewey, unstable air, intermittent thin cloud and a haze. Still, the time of emergence is about 23:37:30 by my estimate (though at that timepoint Io appeared to be viewed through Jupiters atmosphere, so it's difficult to be exact).

Images taken with a Starlight Express MX5-C 'one-shot colour' CCD camera.
M1, the Crab Nebula, composite image of 2 stacked exposures (10 min and 15 min)
NGC4565 in Coma, composite image of 2 stacked exposures (15 min and 30 min)
M66 in Leo, single exposure of 30 min
M65 in Leo, average of two 10 min exposures
M64, the 'Blackeye' galaxy in coma berenices, average of two 10 min exposures

ASTROPHOTOS

Taken on a really windy night, the photograph below of M42 was autoguided for 40 minutes with a 201XT (guidescope). Film was Fuji Superia 400, shot prime-focus through the 10" LX200 and using a 2" LPR filter. Wind vibration on the mount didn't help improve sharpness! - the 201XT did it's best to track and there's no evidence of trailing. This is a highly compressed JPG of the original, scanned from the negative using an Epson FilmScan 200 and lightly un-sharp masked
M42, 40 minutes prime-focus on Fuji Superia 400. Autoguided with a 201XT and using an LPR filter.

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