Photos of the moon

I gave another try in taking photos of the moon early this evening. Without much further comment, here they are



























Here are the sharpest photos that I got so far. In fact, their file names are "moon sharp, moon sharp 2 and moon sharp 3" when I saved them











I cannot overstate the fact that looking through the eyepiece is a totally different experience. I used a 22 mm eyepiece with a 2x barlow for these shots. While on live observation, I can go as far as a 6 mm eyepiece with the 2x barlow.

Saturn as seen through the webcam

This is what Saturn looks like through the camera. Of course, looking through the telescope is an entirely different thing. First, the planet as seen in the picture looks like a small speck of light. Looking through the telescope, the planet appears to be slightly larger and sharper than the picture. Second, the rings are well defined and detail is fantastic when looking through the eyepiece. One can make out the subtle colors of the planet when observed carefully for quite some time.

I guess better equipment will produce better results. But as long as I'm enjoying the views through the telescope, I'm very much satisfied. Astrophotography equipment can follow once I graduate and get a well paying job.

My first astrophotography experience

I tried getting some photos today and last night. I was surprised at how hard astrophotography would be especially without proper equipment. (I was using a webcam held over the eyepiece by hand!) However, I believe that everything must start with something small. And this is indeed a triumph for me.

Here's one photograph of the moon



Since the webcam available is of fair quality and does not boast much features, taking pictures of the planets was impossible, especially when using the 9mm eyepiece coupled with a 2x barlow. I tried getting images of Saturn and Mars but to no avail. I still have AVI shots of the moon which I will be posting as soon as I get them processed.

Into the world of amateur astronomy

February 3, 2010
Philippines

Just a few days ago, I acquired a 60 mm aperture refractor telescope. Now I'm enjoying views of the moon and just last night I found the planet Saturn.

The moon tonight is nearing its end and in a few days it will enter a new phase. There are great things to see at the moon. Among them are the craters that are most prevalent at the terminator. I've learned that our very own satellite is best observed during its phases as its craters is not so prevalent during the full moon. One thing that I tried tonight is using the Barlow lens to take a closer look at the craters.

Saturn is a lovely thing to observe. Using my 60 mm telescope, I clearly saw Saturn's famous rings. It was very beautiful indeed. In fact, it was only my second time and I never get tired looking at it. I tried the different eyepieces to get different views and the 20 mm eyepiece gave the sharpest image of Saturn. The 6 mm eyepiece gave decent images but the wind is blowing hard so the view was a little bit wobbly.

I tried viewing Mars early in the evening while it is not yet at the zenith. It looks like a red sphere with not much detail perhaps due to the limitation of the scope and bad seeing during the night. Yet, it was still a great sight.

I had to end my observation tonight because of my class tomorrow. I'll be observing again tomorrow and try to look for more objects in the night sky.