Show me the Crab
This is an old post from my early adventures in deep sky astrophotography before I had a backyard to call my own. From 2011 through 2014, I spent a lot of time at my local astronomy clubs observatory. It took me about 45 minutes to drive there each way, and I set up all of my gear and tore it down each time. During those years, my future wife worked at a restaurant in the evenings and weekends. As hard is this was on our relationship, it provided the perfect opportunity to keep busy with my new hobby during those lonely nights. A fantastic night at a dark sky site I spent my second night…
Orion and Running Man Nebula
This is an old post from November 2011. At the time, deep sky astrophotography was still very new to me. Since then, I have photographed the Orion Nebula and Running Man Nebula several times, and it's still one of my all-time favorite deep sky targets. Interestingly enough, this post talks about my first time using an apochromatic refractor, the Explore Scientific ED80. I went on to use and enjoy this telescope for the next 5 years! My experiences with this refractor were critical to my success and enjoyment of the hobby. This is one of the many reasons I recommend a compact APO refracto…
Photograph the Moon with a Point and Shoot Camera
[caption id="attachment_4546" align="aligncenter" width="688"] The full moon[/caption] Photograph the Moon with a point and shoot camera You can take some incredible pictures of the moon through a telescope using an inexpensive point-and-shoot camera. Some of my very first astrophotography images were of the moon in its many phases using the afocal method (eyepiece projection does not use a camera lens) method. The photo above was captured way back in 2010 through my first telescope, an Orion SkyQuest Dobsonian. Since then, I have photographed the moon countless times through a telescope.…
