Photos from the New Camera

I made an incremental upgrade to my camera last night. I was using the Canon PowerShot SX40 HS and now have the Canon PowerShot SX50 HS.  The detail in some of the images I took is much better than with the older camera.  The greatest improvement I noticed was my photo of the Orion Nebula I took tonight.  I superimposed the old image on the new one for comparison.  The image on the left side was the old, and the right side is the new photo taken tonight.

It is still very grainy but it now shows a lot more color and more of the nebula itself than the previous image.

I also took another picture of the Pleiades tonight and could actually label all of the stars that comprise it using the photo I took and then going into Stellarium for comparison.  The labeled photo is below.

The Pleiades nine brightest stars are named for the Seven Sisters in Greek Mythology and their parents, Atlas and Pleione. Sterope/Asterope are actually one sister however the name is spelled both ways. The names are shared by 22 Tauri (labelled Sterope) and 21 Tauri (labelled Asterope).  The Seven Sisters were Nymphs.

This photo is just a random one I decided to add of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion.

The last photo for tonight will be of Jupiter and its moons.  The reddish colored 'moon' northwest of Jupiter is actually a star (HIP 20417A) the three moons visible moving southeast away from Jupiter are: Io, Ganymede and Callisto.

Also HIP 20417A is about 1753 light years away form Earth.

Great Photography Site

If you want to see some great photography, I highly recommend this website.

Stuck In Customs

Cell Phone Astrophotography

If you have a telescope and a cell phone with a camera you can take pictures of what you are seeing in the eyepiece of your telescope. All you really need is some time and patience.  I have only managed to take a few pictures this way so far, but I was only outside trying for about 15 minutes or so.  Once everything comes together however the pictures you can get can turn out pretty well.

Here are two photos that I got while using my phone to take photos through the telescopes eyepiece.  To do this, all you need to do is line up the camera from your phone to the eyepiece of the telescope and take the picture.  This can be a little tricky depending on the phone and even the case you have protecting your phone.  I managed to get a few good pictures of the Moon as shown above using this method. I also tried to get a picture of Jupiter and its moons, but was not entirely successful.  The reason being that once I got Jupiter in view through the eyepiece and could get the camera on the phone lined up properly, Jupiter had already moved out of the frame.  This problem could be solved if your telescope could target an object and then track with it as it moves across the sky.

Another Tilt-Shift Photo

It was cloudy today and I didn't take any pictures so I am posting another tilt-shift photo.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have something a little better to post on here.

Jupiter and Pleiades Cluster

Here is a picture I took this evening with both Jupiter and the Pleiades Cluster in the same shot.  If you look at the full size version of the photo you can make out some of Jupiter's moons as well.

While on a break close to 2 am I went outside for a few minutes to get a picture of the Moon.  It turned out okay I think.  It was a nice clear night tonight with many stars visible.

Sun Through Tree

I played around with the colors of this picture a bit to give it this nice blue tint.  I think it turned out rather well.  I looked at the original version and the black and white versions as well, but this one seemed to me to be the best.

And for something random just thrown in, here is a picture of the Capitol Building in Denver that was taken several years back while on a trip there for work.

The past few nights the clouds have prevented me from taking any good pictures of the Moon, Jupiter, etc.  I hope to have some new ones of those objects fairly soon to post on here.

Rock Face

I was looking through some pictures I took while in Colorado for a trip back in 2005 and noticed this one.  The rock resembles persons head with a hat some kind of robe and then what could be legs below it.  I just thought the photo was interesting and that I should post it.  What can you see?

Happy New Year!