Tonight, I finally got out under the stars for the first time in a month and was rewarded with a beautiful view of Saturn. Visually it was great and I had the chance to share it with several people and this image testifies to how good it looked with the camera. It’s hard to imagine it looking much better than this, though I’m going to try a bit more processing and see if I can pull some more detail.
May 29, 2011
April 23, 2011
Saturn on 4/23/11
Tonight was pretty nice with a few clouds and so I got thse scope out to try out my new piggyback mount. I took a series of images of M81/M82 and will be processing those later. Afterward, I hooked up the webcam and took this shot of Saturn. The Cassini division is reasonably visible. I can’t wait until I get a night of really good seeing.
October 30, 2010
Jupiter on 10/29/10
Tonight was nice and clear (though cold) and I took a bit more than an hour to capture frames for a movie of Jupiter rotating. Unfortunately, it’s taking a really long time to process all of the frames, but this one was nice and I thought I’d share.
October 28, 2010
Jupiter on 10/28/10
It was very windy tonight, but pretty clear, so I got out the scope for a bit and imaged Jupiter. The results are way better than what I used to be able to do, but are a bit dissappointing compared to more recent efforts. 
January 16, 2010
Mars on 1/15/10
It’s been so cold, I haven’t been out at all this year yet. It has finally warmed up a bit (high 30′s) and so I went out tonight in spite of the light, but growing, clouds. Mars did not disappoint! Through my Maksutov-Cassegrain scope, with my 5X Barlow, I could clearly see the polar cap and a bit of detail on the planet. The camera could pick up even more as you can see. Mars right now is approaching it’s largest size for the next 2 years at the end of this month – it’s definitely getting bigger and I hope to get more images as it gets closer.
April 3, 2009
Hyperdetailed Moon on 4/3/09
Tonight was the first reasonably clear night in a couple weeks. Unfortunately, the Moon is high and very bright so I just got some bright shots of it and Saturn. Unfortunately, before I could do anything else, my telescope dewed up so I had to call it a night. It was actually just a bit too windy to do any deep sky imaging.
The image of the Moon, above, is an Autostitched panorama made from 32 images like this:
I captured each of these frames and then used the free AutoStitch software to put them together. The result is a hyper detailed image of the Moon. If you click on the Moon image, you can then click on all sizes and choose the largest size to see the detail – it’s 3337 pixels on a side, so there’s a ton of stuff to see up close!
I also took this quick shot of Saturn:
Though the evening was a bit frustrating because of the dewing up and some other issues, it was still great to get out with the scope again after a month with only a handful of observations and I’m also really pleased with the big Moon image. I hope to do more of those. Autostitch did a great job.
March 17, 2009
Venus on 3/17/09
Venus has been getting huge lately, but I haven’t been able to see it because of the cloudy weather. This evening is clear of clouds, but a bit hazy. I was able to get this quick shot of Venus as it set behind a tree across the street. It’s just huge in the eyepiece and becoming more of a crescent every day.
March 7, 2009
Saturn with Moons on 3/6/09
Saturn’s rings are nearly edge on right now and will be for months. If you look closely, in this image, you can make out as many as 5 moons (2 are easier than the others, they are all to the right of Saturn).
February 16, 2009
Venus on 2/16/09
I’m back out in my driveway for the first time in a couple weeks. It’s rather chilly, but very clear. I’m hoping to take some deep sky stuff tonight. The image above is of Venus. It’s getting huge in the scope now and will only be getting bigger over the next month or so – it’s clearly a crescent and I believe that I can see that it’s a crescent even looking at it with the naked eye.
January 30, 2009
The Moon on 1/30/09
Tonight’s Moon was really pretty, hovering above Venus in the west.
Here’s yesterday’s Moon:
And here’s Venus:
