This is a combination of photos taken with the 8" Meade LX200 on the night of February 17, 2008, from Port Orchard, Washington. The photos were taken with a Meade DSI Pro II and stitched together with Paint Shop Pro Photo X2. These pictures do not do justice to the tranquility of the view that night.

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 11:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It was the second night out with the LX90 and the Meade LPI. This time, I got much better focus. Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, seeing conditions were not quite as good. I finally quit the moon and slewed over to the Andromeda Galaxy, hoping to get my first deep-sky image. You'll see the result of that on this blog later. However, for now - here are some more great lunar shots ... some with the Meade LPI and others with the Canon EOS 20D ...

Click below to see a gallery of photos...

Continue reading "01/27/2007 - SECOND NIGHT OUT WITH MEADE LPI" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday was as clear as a bell and I was anxious all day, hoping that the skies would remain clear long into the evening. I had never yet been able to use the 12" LX-90 for any serious attempt at photography and was ready to try. As luck would have it, the skies were clear, but I had to move the telescope outside of the observatory to be able to point it to new areas of the sky.

From all I've heard and experiences I've had in recent past, focusing is the real challenge with any astrophotography, so I decided to work on something fairly easy - the moon. Here are some images I got in about two hours of work last night. Yes, the focus is not perfect but on the other hand, I don't know how clear I can expect to get with the Meade LPI. Once my tele-extender arrives, I'll be able to hook the EOS 20D up and that should help resolve better images.

Click on the link below for more photos:

Continue reading "01/26/2007 - LUNAR IMAGING WITH MEADE LPI" »

Posted by Jim W Coleman at 11:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)