Old Photos

[Larryp]

Just a couple of images of significant astronomical events-perhaps some members might be interested. They are low resolution scans of photographic prints, so they are best viewed as thumbnails.
First one is comet Shoemaker-Levy impacts on Jupiter, taken using eyepiece projection on a 10" Meade Scmidt/Cassegrain-I no longer have the exposure details, but the film was Konica SRV3200.There are 2 impact sites at the top of the image.
The second is Supernova 1987A in the LMC-the supernova is the bright star in the bottom left corner. Meade S/C at f10, 40 minutes guided on Konica SRV3200 film

[AstroJason]

Great images Laurie. I don’t know how anyone managed to get shots like these before digital. I take it for granted that I can run a series of test shots to check the exposure levels, etc before trying to take an image, seems so easy these days. No doubt a lot of patients and experience required to grab these. Thanks for sharing.

[ourkind]

Great images indeed!

My dad took me to the Sydney Observatory to see the impact marks left by the comet. I'll never forget it, there were so many people there to see it.

We probably stood in a queue for over an hour, after seeing jupiter we then went and stood in another queue to look at the moon, it was amazing.

I don't have photos from that evening but I did keep the info sheet they gave me that night (attached).

Great stuff Laurie :)

[Larryp]

Thanks Carlos and Jason:)

[cometcatcher]

Great images Laurie.

I remember both events well. My home built 40cm Dob was not long completed and I had excellent views of the Jupiter impacts. I did take some video and made vidcaps but can't find the images of it now.

SN1987A was also quite spectacular to look at through my 5 inch F3.6 "Cometcatcher" paired with the Tarantula nebula. I took some rather poor black and white pics that were disappointing.

In this day and age I can just imagine the flood of high quality pics coming from such events.

[Larryp]

Thanks Kevin
I don't think too many people were into astrophotography in those days-certainly not in my circle. And it was a bit of a black art-all I found I could do was read some books and experiment-there was nobody to ask. Now with the internet, there is easy access to information and help, and so many people are into AP!:)

[cometcatcher]

That's right, the learning curve pre-internet days was painfully slow. Waiting days for photos to be developed didn't help either. That's one reason I shot mostly B+W and developed my own.

[Poita]

Oh man, I remember hypering fuji film to get more sensitivity. I don't miss those days.

[Larryp]

I still have my old developing tank and stuff for developing B&W film-sold the enlarger many years ago. I remember making tools for dodging and burning from old coat hangers and opaque tape.

[pluto]

Great images Laurie, thanks for sharing :thumbsup:

[LewisM]

Good stuff Laurie! I can't geta shot of Jupiter worth a damn with digital, let alone thinking of trying it with film! Great work indeed.

[Rod771]

Great pics Laurie. :thumbsup:

Far too good to be in the Beginners section ;)

[Larryp]

Thanks Hugh, Lewis and Rod. I put them in the beginners section because one is solar system and the other is deep sky, and I wanted to post them together.
The comet Shoemaker-Levy photo was used at the time by "Southern Astronomy" and "Astronomy Now" magazines.

[brian nordstrom]

:) Thanks for the walk down memory lane , Laurie great shots .
I remember seeing the impacts in my 60mm f/15 refractor , impressed I was .
On the film attempts , yea remember waiting a week for the films to arrive only to find the devoloping company thought 90% of your photos were taken with the lense cap still on and so :rolleyes: did not bother to devolop them :mad2:...
Those were the days .
,, you needed lots of patience .
Brian.