Well, recently that bug bit me again and I was lucky enough to find an 8 inch Dobsonian mounted Newtonian on craigslist for a nice price. Got it home and set it up and was able to take pictures just by holding my cellphone up to the eyepiece.
Jupiter and three of his moons
The Orion Nebula
The Moon
This was enough to make me want more and more meant some better equipment. So first I found a new (okay old, but new to me) Canon T2i camera and a couple kit lenses for wide angle shots and adapters to use with my scope.
Moon through the trees on a cloudy night. Hand held and just playing with the settings.
All of the above photos were taken from my back patio in Martinsburg WV.
I also wanted to eliminate as much light pollution as I could so I started looking for a dark sky sight relatively close by. I found Sleepy Creek Lake Natural Area about 40 minutes west of me.... on the other side of a mountain.
This was towards the Northeast. Still trying to remember which area.
18mm wide frame, 25 seconds.
Big Dipper's handle. 18mm at 25 seconds.
Scorpio Rising 18mm at 25 seconds.
Scorpio Rising with Antares showing. 18mm at 25 seconds.
This site should work nicely and I'll try to get out there every couple months weather permitting.
I also would like to get out to Spruce Knob State Park for some REALLY dark skies, but that will likely wait until Winter and much drier skies as well. 3 hour drive.
My first attempt at manipulating a photo. From my back yard. Canon T2i at 18mm F3.5 and ISO 6400 for 24 seconds. Looking towards the SE, you can make out some of the Milky Way in the bottom of the picture. The Top is the picture after a session in Lightroom and the bottom is the untouched raw original.
Same pictures at 1600 and 20 seconds
10sec ISO800 F3.5 18mm
Wrinkles in Space/Time
56 stacked images without darks or biases (Yes, I know I did it incorrectly)
18mm 14seconds F3.5 ISO800 on the T2i
