Your astrophotos

Re: Neptune and the Cat's Eye

Kevin Bozard — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:12:42 GMT

Nice shots George. I'm glad someone was able to get out and do something before the clouds moved in. I went out to check the skies at approximately 9:30 in preparation for viewing the ISS fly over, but the clouds were just too thick. At 12:30 AM, the Moon was the only thing that could pierce the cloud layer, and even it wasn't doing a very good job at it. Thanks for sharing the pics!

Re: Neptune and the Cat's Eye

NCTiger — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:06:15 GMT

Wanted to get some more subs of the Cat's Eye Nebula last night. Although there was a full moon, I intended to get a number before the moon rose too high above the horizon. Got set up a sunset and aligned the scope during twilight. Was intending to get a couple of dozen without a filter and then add the OIII filter for a dozen or so, but just as I got 12 sixty second subs w/o the filter heavy clouds rolled in. Tried to wait them out, but the moon brightened up considerably and the clouds just wouldn't go away. Rigged down and as usual the clouds departed just as I got everything put away. Here's what I salvaged:

Neptune and the Cat's Eye

NCTiger — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:12:06 GMT

Friday night skies were clear at sunset, but I didn't want to observe because of the bright moon. Got to bed relatively early, but about 2:00 am one of our dogs needed to go outside. Went with him and saw beautiful skies with the moon low on the southwest horizon. The scope was still set up from a few nights earlier covered with the 365 Telegizmo cover, so I took off the cover, connected the power and gave the skies a look-see. Jupiter was between a couple of trees in the southeast, so I checked out the king - first time I've seen it in several months - majestic as usual. Knowing Neptune was close by, I slewed to its location, and was able to spot a greenish dot in the fov. Put the camera on and squeezed off a few shots. Only one decent one, but it captures the beauty of the eighth planet:

Moved over to Draco high overhead, slightly to the northwest. Usually there's a pretty bad light pollution problem from the city of Asheville to the north, but it wasn't too bad at this time of the morning. Couldn't see my target, the Cat's Eye Nebula, but trusted the GoTo system of the CGE and put the camera back on the scope. Went to the autoguide system and made a number of shots. Ironically, the nebula showed up best in one of the test shots I made. I did make a number of subs at longer exposures, but for the most part the nebula details were blown out in these longer exposures.

Finally shut it all down just as twilight was showing.