What image have you taken that gives you a real buzz!

[Matt Wastell (Matt)]

Hi all

This topic may have been done? but I am wondering what image have you taken that has given you the most pleasure and why?

I will tell one of my stories if I may.

I had been imaging for some time and was introduced to Autostitch (a free stitching programme to 'join' images - usually landscape etc).
I had never used one before and thought I would take images from the full Moon and stitch them together. I was using my 8" scope and LPI.
I took about 20 individual images and late that night I merged them into my first full Moon image. I was so impressed with the results I posted the image on an LPI site.
Later one of the other members wrote back and congratulated me on my penumbral eclipse image - unbeknown to me I had captured the outer part of Earth's shadow cast on the full Moon.

The image was also published in Australian Sky and Telescope magazine - something that still spins me out.

What is your story?

Matt

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I started off imaging using my 10" Dob and a clunky old Panasonic DV camera.
Not the easiest thing to do. You needed 3 hands to make it work. One to guide the dob, one to hold the camera and a third hand to focus.
But.... I managed to capture some pretty fair images of Jupiter.
This series was published in Sky and Tel in 2006. I was as proud as punch.
Why is this my favourite? Because I was pushing the envelope to the very limits using the only gear I had at my disposal.
I was told you can't do astrophotography with a dob and you need to have a special astronomy camera, or at least a web cam to image with.
So just to prove them wrong I did it anyway.
I was even asked very politely by one ex-member here if i could supply him with a copy of the .avi's used. (I don't think he believed I took them)
Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do!

[AdrianF (Adrian)]

This is my most memorable photo, although the quality is pretty poor, because it was my first photo of a planet and it was taken with a fujifilm s5600 held to the eyepiece of the 10" Dob. It was taken about 18 months ago. My photography hasnt improve 1 iota since.

Adrian

[Lumen Miner (Mitchell)]

This was one of my first moon shots. Kept me interested in the hobby.

[TrevorW]

All of them even the bad ones

!!!!

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

Tornado at 500m away
I have a death wish

[stephenb (Stephen)]

Mine would have to be my Supernova 1987a image, on film. I still can remember the night I was standing in a paddock in Country Victoria with the camera and tripod.

[kinetic (Steve)]

Too many...and it's a work in progress...
Halley in '86, '87
Video of Shoemaker Levy impacts on Jupiter

One I'm particularly proud of is capturing Deimos in the 2005
apparition...

Steve

[AlexN]

This one...

Its the first image I ever took where I set up an hour before dusk, and when it came time to image, everything just WORKED!... No problems, no issues, no niggles with guiding or polar alignment.. just point scope at target, start imaging run, stack, process and post on the forums..

Was most pleasurable...

[Paul Haese]

The image below is the one image I am most proud. It represents the peak of my planetary imaging skills so far. It was on Space weather for 4 days and everytime I look at it I think of that magical night of near perfect seeing last year. I have taken many images I like but this one is my absolute favourite.

[rogerg (Roger)]

Awsome image everyone, especially that Jupiter, Paul - stunning.

Mine is my Hubble Deep Field South image. It was a fun project, I had a goal and I achieved it, and it was a first for an amateur as far as the actual HDF-S team were aware.

"these days" as everyone else's equipment grows in capabilities and mine remains somewhat frozen in time, I guess the real buzz factor which remains is that as an amateur astronomer with a mid range setup I can image objects 4.5 billion light years away, photons that started travelling as the earth was barely forming. And there's an extremely good chance that if I do the same long exposure on any other part of the sky I will find a similar number of distant galaxies. The possibilities are endless!

My image

About the project

[suma126 (Shane)]

My first milky way shot and seeing a comet for the first time.

[leon]

Steven, it so happens I too have that exact image taken on black and white film, all those years ago, it certainly was a different procedure in those days with out digital stuff.
Great memories everyone, it is great to look back on some of the stuff from the past.


leon

[Astrobserver99 (Rob)]

All of my images give me a buzz. If the imaging session goes smoothly, I am very happy.

My very first images of the moon and planets using 35mm film and a standard 1/4" CCD security camera on a 8" Dob were exciting.

[Ric]

One of my favourites so far would have to be my "Ghost of Jupiter" Planetary image.

Cheers

[Quark (Trevor)]

This image of a Saturn showing Titan plus Titans shadow transit gave me a lot of satisfaction.

I had just finished designing and building a Peltier cooler for my primary mirror. A lot of effort went into the cooler. This particular night I had run the cooler for about an hour and taken my mirror temp about 1 degree C below ambient. I had shut down the system and was tracking Saturn. As the ambient slowly kept dropping and came to within 1/2 degree C of the mirror the image of Saturn which had been getting ever sharper, just seemed to snap sharp as. The image stayed really nice for about an hour until the ambient went lower than my mirror.

I had been researching this topic of active cooling for some time and had put a great deal of thought into how I could apply such a system to my particular setup. To achieve this sort of result really was extremely satisfying.

Some of the images I have taken of storms on Saturn in less than ideal conditions have also meant a lot to me. To be able to eek out storm structure with no regards to the esthetic's of the image but just for the scientific value of the data is a challenge I really enjoy.

Regards
Trevor

[xelasnave]

Every photo I have of my daughter gives me a real buzz.
My wide fields do it for me... sadley I found that out after I had accumulated a few too many scopes given the standard lens that came with the camera does acceptable shots for my requirements.
alex

[AstroJunk (Jonathan)]

Forgive the photographic pun, but this to me is the best photo I ever took. I still love it

[Baron von Richthofen (Vaclav)]

This photo gives me Goosebumps every time I look at it, I wish I did take it but it comes from the ISS
When I was 5 or 6 I saw a film that had volcanoes in it and I had night mares about volcanoes for over a year

[Jen]

The moon was the first thing that made me go wow
And that was only by just sticking the cam in front of the eyepiece
But its my fav photo ever