First attempt at imaging another galaxy, M51

Tonight was my first attempt at imaging another galaxy. This is M51 the Whirlpool Galaxy. This was taken with a canon 450d and a nexstar 6se. 19 lights 19 darks 19 bias. This will only get better, as i have a wedge on the way for my 6se. Exposure times should improve, but overall I am pleasantly surprised with what I got, as this is not an easy target in light polluted skies.

Milky Way, Mars, Saturn, and Antares triangle

4-30-16 High winds, poor seeing, and a last quarter Moon got in my way this morning but I did manage to catch the Mars, Saturn, and Antares triangle along with a little Milky Way so it wasn't all for nothing. This was a 2 minute exposure ISO 1600 Canon 450d piggybacked on a Celestron Nexstar 6se.

Mars, Saturn, and Antares in the pre-dawn sky

Good morning Coachella Valley, I woke up early enough this morning and noticed that Mars, Saturn, and Antares were perfectly lined up in the palm trees in my backyard. So, whats an astronomer to do? Grab the camera of course! Picture taken at 5:25am, with a Canon 450d ISO 100 F/5 30s exposure

4-17-16 Mars is quickly approaching opposition

Mars is quickly approaching opposition, and is looking better each day. The Mars opposition occurs May 22 and will not disappoint at an apparent magnitude -2.06 , so get your cameras ready.

Moon and Jupiter Conjunction 4-17-16

Tonight had a fantastic conjunction of our Moon and the planet Jupiter, meaning they were very close to each other in the night sky. This image is a composite of two separate images with different exposures that I combined together to create the final image. Taken with a Canon 450d at f/5.6 1/400s and 4s at ISO 100

The Moon 4-17-16, a Waxing Gibbous Moon 87% full

I snapped this single exposure image of the Moon tonight with my Canon 450d attached to a Celestron Nexstar 6se with a 6.3 focal reducer. Tonight's Moon is a Waxing Gibbous, and is about 87% full. This months full Moon lands on April 22nd at 1:24 am, and is called the Pink Moon in the farmers almanac due to spring flowers.

4-12-16 Sunspot region 2529

Took the telescope out for a spin in the heat today and got a fantastic shot of Sunspot region 2529. It's huge! It also seems to be developing a crack and looks to be splitting in two sometime soon. I love looking at Sunspots through a telescope (proper Sun filter of course), but boy is it hard to do here in the Coachella Valley due to the heat. I typically try and avoid Sun gazing in the summer, but this monster of a Sunspot had to be photographed. Enjoy!

Jupiter 2-26-16 Europa, Io Transit and Great Red Spot

I've been going over the data that I captured on February 26, 2016 and have finally had the time to post about it. I captured a first in my personal astronomy book. There was a double transit of Europa and Io, and I was able to catch the shadows of both along with Io itself and the famous Great Red Spot! This was the first time I've been able to actually capture a Moon transit of Jupiter. I have previous images of shadow transits, but could never quite capture the Moon itself. The seeing was 4/5 for some the night and near the end of my session it dropped to a 2/5 and a few thin clouds. The images start out great and get a bit worse as the transition was ending. So, unfortunately the best pictures of the night were before the best parts of the transits. I'll take what I can get thought, right?

To be honest, I was sadly disappointed with the weather here in the Coachella Valley during Jupiter's March 8 opposition. I had hoped to capture some data that night and post them, but had to settle for my last viewing opportunity which is what you see here.

Images taken with a Celestron Nexstar 6se + Phillips spc900nc webcam 2x barlow. The first 3 I used a little digital zoom from the webcam.

Europa shadow

Europa shadow

Europa shadow

Europa shadow and GRS

Europa shadow and GRS

Io + shadow and GRS

Io + shadow and GRS

Io + shadow and GRS