Best amateur shots, ever!

[iceman]

Check out this webpage, from Damian Peach.. they are the result of his astrophotography trip to Barbados, where he took his 9.25" Celestron and his CCD cameras.

http://www.damianpeach.com/barbados05.htm

They have to be seen to be believed.

Among the best shots by an amateur, ever.

[h0ughy]

This guy actually imaged details on ganymede :jawdrop:

Jupiter has to be the best I have seen and as for saturn, I wouldn't have known it wasn't a NASA shot.

Wow, this guy has fed his SCT steroids!! :D :2thumbs: :2thumbs: :2thumbs:

Man that is dedication!

[vindictive666]

wow did you see his shots of the moon


:eyepop: :thumbsup: :2thumbs:

[Brendan]

oh boy this guy is very good

[cometcatcher]

Obviously his secret to taking great images is to sit next to your telescope nekid! :ashamed: Off with the clothes everyone!

[h0ughy]

not in this weather brother!! 3 last night and that was on the coast

[Striker]

Great shots.....terrible shot of him.

As soon as open the linked I faced a half naked man sitting beside a telescope...Yuck.

If they were my shots I would have atleast been clothed.

Excellant work for a ccd camera virtualy the same as a toucam 1/3 chip 640 x 480.

[ving]

gah! i can do better! :rolleyes:

hehe,
they are some of the best shots i have ever seen... (sorry bird where ever you are)

[ballaratdragons]

WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

Fantastic work!!!!

Can't imagine myself sitting around dressed (un-dressed) like that though. WHY?
Below is a pic I took of my doggies playing in the frost this morning at 9a.m. It was minus 4 last night!!
That answers that!

[xrekcor]

Well at least he's in shorts, hell I dont wear much else in summer here either, save for sweeting all over the ep lol,

The gif animations are pretty funky too!!

regards

[[1ponders]]

I don't think I want to play anymore. :(:(:( Strange as it is for me, words fail me. I think I'll take my toys and go home now.

[ballaratdragons]

Paul,

He has probably dissheartened Astrophotographers the world over!!!

Gives you something to aim for though.

[[1ponders]]

I wonder how much it cost to hire out a couple of hours of Cassini camera time :confuse3:

I'm not taking anything away from his obvious skill but when you compare shots like those with other very accopmplished planetary imagers what a differnce seeing can make hey.

[ballaratdragons]

Can Barbados be THAT dark?

[[1ponders]]

??? Dark???

[ballaratdragons]

OK. Can the Barbados Atmosphere be that clear and still (as well as dark). It all looks too perfect!!!

Must have been perfect weather, lucky dog!

[elusiver]

yeah.. i woulda thought it'd be fairly muggy in the tropics.. and hot.. which wouldn't be good for seeing or transparency i woulda thought..

but anyway.. they are AWESOME shots... really really really really cool. forget hubble.. lets just send this bloke up into space.. maybe then he'll put on a shirt!

el :)

[fringe_dweller]

Ken, he says that is jet stream free there for most of the year!! so thats why the tahiti guy that bird pointed out once gets the shot he gets too - ah! i am starting to get the picture now - they would have a few nice mountains on that island too i would assume - btw my significant other takes better cat photos than he does, so there :-))
Kearn

[Striker]

Looks like we need to organise a trip to Barbardos....Mike's shout....he can ride it off as a Buisness trip for Iceinspace.

Mike dont worry about first class for me....Buisness class will do.

[mick pinner]

and you've got another 1 3/4" Tony.

[davidpretorius]

i have to order the scope now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am sure andrew will get out of bed.

where does a 9.25" Celestron sit next to a 10" newtonian (dob) in terms of ability to see this sort of detail. forget about barbados or colour or tracking, lens for lens, how do they compare. I notice the price of the meades etc are very very expensive.

[Dennis]

Hi Lex

In Brissie, we tend to get still, steady nights in the muggy, hot summer, which is great for imaging the Moon and Planets, but lousy for galaxies due to poor transparency..

In the winter, when the skies are dry and transparent, the air seems unstable so the seeing is usually poor (stars twinkling madly) but the atmosphere is transparent and is great for imaging galaxies.

So, muggy and hot can be good sometimes!

Cheers

Dennis

[slice of heaven]

Well, lens 4 lens the newt wins hands down. IF we're talking mirrors configured to the same tolerances.SCTs and Maks use more lenses and fold the light more times and have a corrector lens as well. So youll lose more light before it gets to the EP.

[fringe_dweller]

It doesnt make any sense? when it is warm and muggy in SA the seeing and transparency are at their very worst!? Luckily i like wide field imaging with film the most - it only has to be cloud free and dark for that pretty much.

How truly representative of what the viewer would see through the ep at the same scope/conditions are these types of multiple stacked images? Also it is set up for perfect tracking and taking trillions of images endlessly, (compiling dot by dot the good seeing in the final pic) unlike a dob/newt of course - so visually i would be very surprised if a SC like the 9.25" can out do a quality 8 - 10" f6+ newt for pure visual use on planets, side by side. Any takers?
kearn

[ausastronomer]

Mike,

Damian Peach is a phenomenal astroimager, one of the best ever, however there have been several others just as good. For instance Maurizio De Sciullio owner of Excelsior Optics was taking images of that quality 10 years ago with somewhat inferior photographic and computer equipment at his disposal compared to that which Damian Peach uses. Unfortunately Maurizio has retired due to poor health and has taken his Excelsior Optics website down which contained all his images. There are still a few floating around the internet but not his best shots. Maurizio built special long focus planetary newtonians, an 8"/F10 and a 10"/F8, he did all his imaging with a 10"/F8 newt.

Cs-John B

[iceman]

The focal length (image scale) of the SCT will be almost double that of the newt, so for planetary imaging the SCT will win.. for newts you need at least a 5x barlow to get the same image scale.

It's the jetstream that kills us (for seeing) here, it's been overhead sydney for the last 4-5 days and doesn't look like changing for a while.

Visually, the newt has a smaller CO and you can't go the same magnification visually as you can when imaging, so the newt should win, but not by much.

John, I haven't heard of him - i'll have a search around to find some of his images.

[fringe_dweller]

Mike, I just am concerned that people who are unfamiliar with scoping would get the idea that that is what they will see through the eye piece in the same instrument - like the hubble shots do to newcomers - they should have disclaimers on them heheh. I find single shots with a digital Point and shooter afocal are a lot more honest representation/indication of a telescopes visual abilities for visual use only. Point taken on the image size of target in the image itself. Mind you i have seen similar image views sizes and quality visually in newts in the rarish right conditions.
I have found over the last 11 years that some years are freakish in the amount of good seeing you get and then others are the same the other way - like the last couple of years for instance. When i started scoping in late '94 the first two years were absolutley awesome for seeing - it seemed like nearly every night was amazing. It has never been that good since. in fact one year soon after that it was nearly cirrus everyday for a whole year at least.
Kearn

[Exfso]

Cant get on to his site now, get the message saying it has been disabled because he has exceeded his bandwidth.

[iceman]

lol doh, i'm not surprised though.. i'm sure it would've had some very heavy traffic.

[cometcatcher]

It would be so bad if "he" was a "she" sitting half nekid at the telescope. ;) :D

[ausastronomer]

Mike,

As I said earlier, Maurizio's best images were on his website which was closed down about 3 to 4 years ago when he retired, consequently those images are no longer available on the internet. There are a few images still around to browse but not his best work IMO. I did a quick search and found this shot of the Central Rille in the Alpine Valley.

http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/0006/f.html

Some of Jupiter and Saturn Images were outstanding but I can't find any of his good ones.

CS-John B

[vindictive666]

mike

i found this page with a couple of mars pictures and allso one of venus taken by

Maurizio Di Sciullo


http://www.cyanogen.com/products/maxim_gallery.htm


:thumbsup:

[ausastronomer]

Mike,

Here are a few more of Maurizio's lunar and planetary shots mixed in with a few shots from other photographers. These were taken in 1999 and weren't his absolute best but they are all I can find. At 1 time in the past Damian Peach actually had a couple of Maurizio's planetary images on his website but he has also taken those off.

Anyone thats been involved in astrophotography for a lengthy period will know of Maurizio's work. He has had images on the cover of Sky and Tel since the 1970's.

CS-John B

[syzygy]

'This account has exceeded it's bandwidth quota and has been temporarily disabled.'

Looks like the site got a bit too famous for his ISP's liking. :(

Regards,
Chris

[Thiink]

I've been waiting since this has been posted to have a look at the photos, doesnt look like they are going to be back until next month.

[iceman]

The site is back up! Get an eyeful!