With Lunar and Planetary Astrophotography the goal is to capture as high of resolution images as possible. Because these objects are typically relatively bright, exposure times are in the order of fractions of a second, to a few seconds. However, with the exception of the moon these objects are very, very small in the sky. This requires a lot of magnification. Small telescopes typically do not have a sturdy enough mount to handle photography at these extreme powers. I have taken some shots of the planets through my 10" telescope, but they can not compare to the ones taken through the 61" professional telescope I have access to on occasion. The use of CCD cameras helps the small telescope considerably as it can reduce exposure times down enough to "shoot through the seeing" and the shutter is electronic and thus does not cause vibration when tripped.



Leonid Meteor through Orion		 A meteor streaks through the constellation of Orion in the pre-dawn hours of November 17th 1998. This is a 10 minute exposure with Kodak 1000 Royal Gold film with a 28mm lens at f/2.8. This was taken in my yard in Catalina Arizona. Some evidence of the light pollution of Tucson is evident in the lower portion of this picture. This picture was scanned with my Polaroid SprintScan 35 Plus and cropped.

Saturn		 Saturn taken from Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector on Mt. Bigelow just outside of Tucson on October 17th 1998. Visually, I have never seen Saturn so nice as moments before this shot was taken, with moments of 1/2 arc second and better seeing. Taking full advantage of the mighty image scale of the 61" scope and the relativly fast f/13.5, I used Fuji Velvia 50 ISO slide film for a 1/4 second exposure.

Jupiter		 Jupiter taken from Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector on Mt. Bigelow just outside of Tucson on October 17th 1998. With moments of spectacular seeing, I was hoping to get a fantastic shot of Jupiter, but I under exposed all the frames. This is the best one I got at a 1/60th second exposure on Fuji Velvia 50 ISO slide film.

The Crater Tycho		 The crater Tycho on the Moon taken from Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector on Mt. Bigelow just outside of Tucson on June 14th 1997. The crater with the prominent central peak in the center and slightly to the left is Tycho which is 54 miles wide. The film used was Fuji Super G 800 for a 1/250th of a second exposure. The resolution in this photograph is about .75 arc seconds with the smallest details being around a mile across.

Pilatus & Mare Nubium		 Pilatus & Mare Nubium on the Moon taken from Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector on Mt. Bigelow just outside of Tucson on June 14th 1997. The film used was Fuji Super G 800 for a 1/250th of a second exposure. The resolution in this photograph is about .75 arc seconds.

The Crater Copernicus		 The crater Copernicus on the Moon taken from Steward Observatory's 61" f/13.5 Cassegrain Reflector on Mt. Bigelow just outside of Tucson on June 14th 1997. The film used was Fuji Super G 800 for a 1/250th of a second exposure. Copernicus is 56 miles across and is well over 10,000 feet deep. The resolution in this photograph is about .5 arc seconds with the smallest details being less than a mile across.

Venus		 Venus taken from Post Falls, Idaho. 1/4 second exposure with Meade 10" telescope with 10mm eyepiece projection (about 500x) using Kodak Gold 400 film. Venus lacks any surface detail because it is covered with clouds.

First quarter Moon		 The first quarter Moon taken from Post Falls, Idaho. 1/60 second exposure with my Meade 10" telescope at prime focus (using the telescope like a big 2500mm camera lens) and Kodak Gold 400 film.

Lunar Eclipse		 A 4 second exposure of a partial Lunar eclipse taken from my front yard in Post Falls, Idaho.

The Comet Hale-Bopp		 The Comet Hale-Bopp was one of the brightest comets this century, and perhaps the brightest intrinsically in human history. If only our closest approach wasn't 100 million miles, this comet may have been visible in daylight. Even at 100 million miles and with the tail pointing mostly away from the Earth, it was a wonder to behold. This shot was taken piggyback using a 200mm telephoto lens at f3.5 for 5 minutes.


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Last modified: November 21st, 1998
Copyright ©1998 Chris Vedeler
Comments: ckvedeler@access4less.net