The Beehive (M44), Mercury, Moon, Saturn, Mars, Trees, Clouds & Airplanes

[Dennis]

Hi

I had heaps of fun with clouds, the roofline, trees and airplane trails, but managed to grab a couple of images just before we were clouded out.

Mercury, Moon, Saturn and Mars. (Minolta DiMage 7Hi)
The Beehive (M44), Moon, Saturn and Mars. (Pentax *istDS)
Saturn, Moon & Airplane lights. (Pentax *istDS)

The sky glow of Brisbane some 7 km away limits the length of exposure I can take in the West.

Cheers

Dennis

[asimov]

Thats great Dennis - nicely framed by the trees in that first one :)

[ballaratdragons]

I reckon they are terrific shots Dennis!

The Moon did look great tonight didn't it.

[h0ughy]

nice shots, beleive it or not we had a bush fire here thisafternoon and ruined a good shot prospect. Nice to see you captures soem great shots!

[Dennis]

And here's one of Saturn, the Moon and an Airplane flying through the Beehive, M44.

Gee, what a night, so many objects to try and frame!

Cheers

Dennis

[davidpretorius]

well done dennis!

[iceman]

Great shots Dennis, I live the "highway" look in the last shot :)

[Dennis]

Thanks for the nice comments guys. Here are some of the capture details.

I had the Minolta DiMage (28-200mm) and the Pentax *istDS (80-200mm) fitted on a homemade accessory plate mounted on my Vixen GPDX mount. The mount was rough polar aligned using a compass and the altitude scale on the mount. Exposures ranged from 15 to 30 secs, mostly at 200ASA to limit the effects of the light dome of Brisbane.

I tried to stack a couple, but the movement of the Moon between frames (approx 1 1/2 mins.) prevented it. It seems every 2nd image had an airplane going through it!

Cheers

Dennis

PS – Soooooo much easier that DSO’s and Jupiter – I’ve found my niche in astronomy!

[ving]

,lol dennis!

very nice looking shots there :)

[[1ponders]]

Great shot's Dennis. Good to see someone up this end of the country is managing to get some shots in. I really like the third on in your first post with the plane curving. It looks great.

[danielsun]

Great shots Dennis!!!! I like em! :thumbsup:

[Striker]

Wasn't that annoying last night Dennis...totaly clear all day then once the sun went down I could hardly see anything but cloud.

Good to see you were able to take some images....I gave up around 8:30pm

Taking 5 minute images while their is fast moving cloud around is not even worth attempting.

Nice result with these images Dennis.

[Dennis]

Yeah Tony, what a weird day! The forecast was for clear skies, yet, soon after my last shutter click around 6:30'ish, the cloud banks rolled in and never cleared. You were very patient (optimistic?, in love with your RC Meade?) to have soldiered on as long as 8:30!

Cheers

Dennis

[Striker]

I cant take any credit for patience Dennis....I have set up my wireless network to the observatory which means when I checked the images whilst watching Big Brother "Ok I admit it I watch Big Brother" on my main home computer and it was producing cloudy images for the last hour so then it was time to go outside and close the Observatory roof and get ready to watch house.....I love that show....lol

So I wouldn't say I'm an expert in patience...closer to lazy would be a better term for me how I have my telescope set up...hehehehe.

[fringe_dweller]

Very Nice Dennis! thanks for that - i love the gradients of twilight too, so photogenic :)

[Dennis]

Sigh...another illusion shattered, about staunch, brave, hardy, devoted astronomers, out in all weathers, until the wee hours of the morning.

:( Dennis

[fringe_dweller]

hehe their a new breed the 'couch potato astronomers' :P