Just shoot it
Ok, I must admit I haven’t posted in a while. Aside from my mount breaking down, I’ve been quite busy with the various Science Olympiads, wrapping up High School, and most importantly, university applications. After countless essays and a few interviews, the results arrived: I have been accepted into Stanford’s Class of 2028, and...
In 2020, I owned a 127mm Maksutov Cassegrain telescope, a good planetary imager, but I did not have a planetary camera. In 2021, I had the planetary camera, the same Qhy5L-ii mono that I use for guiding, but not the telescope, as I had returned the 127 Mak along with its malfunctioning mount to...
Everyone is going back to their winter residences, the temperatures are getting colder and the town I live in during the summer break is emptying. But I still have some astronomy to do, so, two days before going back to the city, I decide to stay awake for a last, glorious astrophotography night in...
I’ve never deepened the topic of wide-field Milky Way imaging, as most of the time my view towards the South is blocked by light pollution. However, I’ve recently been to my grandparents’ house, and it was in this occasion that I could, for the first time, take some good photos of our galaxy. It...
9 July 2022: school ended. I could finally leave behind textbooks, homework and, most importantly, light pollution and prepare to 3 months of relax, swimming and late nights under relatively dark skies. On July 7th, I decided to stay up until 2am and take the first deep sky image of the summer. CAMERA: Olympus Pen...
One day, I was looking through my window and I saw the bright waxing crescent Moon shining through the pale blue sky. A question came to my mind: is it possible to photograph earthshine during the day? Earthshine is the illumination of the otherwise dark side of the Moon caused by indirect sunlight reflected...
Most of my astronomy photographs were taken using regular camera lenses, as my telescopes were not suited for deep-sky imaging. I’m glad to announce that the game has changed. Parts List IMAGING SCOPE: SkyWatcher 130PDS Newtonian TelescopeMOUNT: SkyWatcher EQ-3 Pro SynscanGUIDING: QHY5L-II monochrome + Celestron Firstscope 76SHUTTER RELEASE: custom-built shutter cableIMAGING CAMERA: Canon EOS...
Between clouds and school, I haven’t had many usable nights to do astrophotography. In fact, I might be the only person in the entire northern hemisphere who hasn’t shot Comet Leonard (argh). However, on the 4th of December, the sky was crystal clear so it was time to lose some sleep! The target I...
It’s hard to believe, but summer’s over. I absolutely had to take one last astrophoto before moving to the Bortle 8 skies that I’ll have to deal with this winter. What better target to shoot than the legendary Messier 31, the Andromeda Galaxy. My image Image specs CAMERA: Olympus Pen F (unmodified)LENS: Olympus 75-300 @300mm...
At the end of this post I said that I would have revisited those two astrophotos with my EQ3 mount. I haven’t shot the Milky Way yet because of extreme light pollution in the South direction, however I did reshoot an object in Cygnus: the North America Nebula. Image Specs CAMERA: Olympus Pen F (unmodified)LENS:...