Milky Way from Arusha Snake Park, Tanzania
This was my first attempt at a widefield using a barndoor tracker. I finished it 3 hours before getting on the plane to go on holiday! Based around an M5 thread, it's small enough to fit in a rucksack, though I need to look at getting rid of the play in the thread. As it was designed for use in East Africa on the Equator the pole is found using a sprit level and compass!
The image shown was supposed to be a first practice run, there was lots of light pollution from my torch and the platform was the back of a truck so it wasn't exactly stable! I was intending to try again a few days later when we wildcamped in the middle of the serengeti (!), but my charger blew up. 3 days into a 3 week trip and I was left with four partially charged batteries so I wasn't about to start holding mirrors open for long periods! A shame, because the milky way in the middle of the serengeti was simply awesome...
There's always next year...
(EOS 300D and Sigma 18-125mm Lens)
My 3rd attempt at Saturn - Toucam Webcam, 1200mm Ebay scope, 4mins stacked in Registax
The Moon - 1200mm Ebay scope, Canon EOS 300D
A quick'n'dirty moon shot, taken after a quick scan of the moon before packing up. Really like the colour.
M42 Great Orion Nebula - 15 x 3 minute & 12 x 1 minute exposures, unmodded 300D @1600 ISO. 15 x 3 minute darks (Guided)
28-NOV-2006
Light Frame of M45 for refence - Straight conversion from RAW to jpeg -Nikon D80
This is a conversion straight from one of the Nikon D80's RAW (NEF)frames into Jpg using PS CS2's Raw converter.
ca. 4 mins @ 1600ISO through a 127mm f5.5 phenix refractor. Guided by guidedog on a windy night - hence the wobbly stars! Fringe Killer but no LPR filter. This is one of the subs of the M45 image above - This is a 10MP image - beware!
CLICK ON ORIGINAL TO VIEW FULL SIZE
