Astrophoto

A color image of the planet Saturn taken by S*T*A*R member Gavin Warnes.  These images were taken with an Imaging Source DMK 21AU04 USB video camera through a red, green, blue and luminence filter and a 6" homemade Newtonian telescope on a Losmandy GM8 mount .  The video was processed with Registax software   The four separate images were then combined to form a color image in the Gimp (free software).

A sequence of images of the planet Mars taken by S*T*A*R member Gavin Warnes on December 29th 2007.  These images were taken over a two and a half hour period and show the planet rotating.  Mars rotates once every 24.6 hours - the featue called Syrtis major is coming into view.  These images were taken with an Imaging Source DMK 21AU04 USB video camera through a near infrared filter and a 6" homemade Newtonian telescope on a Losmandy GM8 mount .  The video was processed with Registax software.

An image of the solar chromosphere taken by Dave Britz using an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope fitted with a Day Star hydrogen alpha filter.  This special filter reveals surface granulation, sun spots (the white area) and solar prominences.  This image was created by processing video frames from a low cost black and white security camera with Registax software. 

An image of the planet jupiter recorded by S*T*A*R member Dave Britz using an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope and a black and white video camera.  Dave recorded the video and the individual frames were processed into this image using powerful (and free!) software called Registax.

This fine photograph of the moon is one of Mike's first attempts at astrophotography. It was taken with a Nikon FM and 70mm Nikon lens. The camera was on a tripod, with the lens focused at infinity and looking into the eyepiece on Mike's homebuilt 6" f/7 Newtonian. The scope is a Dobsonian, and it was on an equatorial platform. The eyepiece was a 32mm TeleVue Plossl (approximate magnification 33X). Film was Kodak Gold 400, 1/15th second exposure.