Astrophotography of the Moon and planets

Kodac C330 + Skywatcher Explorer Pro 130/650

Moon

Skywatcher Explorer Pro D130/F650 no filters, no digital manipulation, medium contrast skies (city) using a simple Kodak EasyShare C330 digital camera!
Using Plössl eyepieces (25mm/10mm/6.5mm), TMB Planetary 5mm, Orion Shorty Barlow
No stacking of images (unless specified)

Date April 11th 2008

Date April 12th 2008

Very first photograph using my modified Trust SpaceC@m 100/200. Too much light for sure, but it was just the very first photo I took using the homemade "astrocam" and as raw as it gets.....

after a few settings of the cam...this looks better doesn't it.

Date: oktober 10th 2008

eyepiece: TMB planetary 5 mm

eyepiece: TMB planetary 5 mm

eyepiece: TMB planetary 5 mm

eyepiece: skywatcher wide-angle 25mm Plössl

Saturn

Skywatcher Explorer D130/F650 telescope no filters, no digital manipulation, not stacking, medium contrast skies (city), using a simple Kodak C330 at 3 megapixels.
I saw the images much much sharper in the eyepiece then here on the photo's, but using a cheap digital camera has its limits!

Date April 7th & 8th 2008

Jupiter

Skywatcher Explorer 130P (D=130/F=650) telescope no filters, no digital manipulation, not stacking, medium contrast skies (city), using a simple Kodak C330 at 3 megapixels.
I saw the images much much sharper in the eyepiece then here on the photo's, but using a cheap digital camera has its limits!

Date August 15th 2008

slightly visible on the right is the moon Ganymede (in my telescope 4 moons where much more clearly visible) <- 3 images stacked

Venus:

Date: January 18th 2009

the chromatic aberration faults are do to the digital camera

Second page

Note:

The rule of thumb to determine the slowest shutter speed possible for hand-holding without noticeable blur due to camera shake is to take the reciprocal of the effective focal length of the lens. For example, at a focal length of 125 mm, vibration or camera shake would affect sharpness if the shutter speed was slower than 1/125 second. As a result of the 3–4 stops slower shutter speeds allowed by IS, an image taken at 1/125 second speed with an ordinary lens could be taken at 1/15 or 1/8 second with an IS-equipped lens and produce almost the same quality. The sharpness obtainable at a given speed can increase dramatically. When calculating the effective focal length, it is important to take into account the image format a camera uses. For example, many digital SLR cameras use an APS-C image sensor that multiplies the effective focal length of the lens by 1.5 or 1.6, depending on the camera. This value is referred to as the crop factor, field-of-view crop factor, focal-length multiplier, or format factor.

However, image stabilization does not prevent motion blur caused by the movement of the subject or by extreme movements of the camera. Image stabilization is only designed for and capable of reducing blur that results from normal, minute shaking of a lens due to hand-held shooting. Some lenses include a secondary panning mode or a more aggressive 'active mode', both described in greater detail below under optical image stabilization.

Much more photo's, info about telescopes, tips & tricks, homemade scopes and lenses etc.
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