Astrophotography Gallery

NGC 2261: Hubble's Variable Nebula in Monoceros

Mars at opposition & Moon at perigee on January 29th, 2010, at 8:20pm

Waning crescent Moon rises over the launch trajectory of STS-130 on the morning of February 8. Photos by John Kocur.

STS-130 Space Shuttle Endeavour launches on the morning of February 8. Photos by John Kocur.

Mars, February 7, 2010. 10 inch Meade LX50 SCT working at f10 with a 2 power barlow inbetween the scope and camera. A color Mallincam was used. This was a 2 minute avi video processed thru Registax and some post processing courtesy of Tom Thibeault thru photoshop.

This photo shows the two shots of Mars with the exact same equipment with the dates shown. It really shows the size based on distance ratio.

Attached is a photo I took on January 29th, 2010, at 8:20PM. This photo is a composite of two pictures taken with a Sony DSC-F707 camera using a 10x zoom. The picture of Mars was taken at F2.4 aperture at a shutter speed of 1/10 set at ISO 100. The picture of the Moon was taken at F6.3 aperture at a shutter speed of 1/1000 set at ISO 100. The final picture was combined and processed in PStudio, software provided by Sony. The text below came from Sky and Telescope’s “This week’s sky at a glance”. I took this picture out through my garage door, it was to cold and windy to go out to the scope that night, but I did enjoy this view for a short while and periodically checked it out during the evening to watch the two progress together across the sky from east to west.

M 76 Little Dumbbell planetary nebula ( Exploded Star, notice central star )

$Sunspot: Sept. 25th at 11:35AM. I had read about the recent report about some activity so I took a look. The photo was taken with an Orion Star Shoot CCD on a iOptron, SmartStar E R80 Refractor utilizing a Red #21 filter and processed with MaxIm DL. We are in Solar Cycle 24 and the (2) spots just above center are Sun Spot 1027$

Photo of Jupiter with three Galilean moons processed from a 20 second video taken on August 2nd at 2:20 AM with an Orion Starshoot Camera through a C11 SCT with a 2x Barlow. The video was 149 frames, processed through RegiStax, followed by MaxIm DL, and then finally with PhotoShop.
The small black spot on the right side of the center white band is Europa’ s shadow, Europa can be seen to the right of the shadow as a small white spot on the edge of the planet. The white spot to the right of the planet is the moon Ganymede, which had emerged from behind Jupiter. Lastly, the small red spot to the left, is the moon Io.
Additionally, the Great Red Spot (GRS) can be easily seen to the bottom left. The GRS is a giant storm in the atmosphere like a hurricane that has been raging for hundreds of years. The storm is so large that earth could fit within it ‘s area easily.
Photo by Tom Thibault.

Here is the image of M3 that was taken during our 1st CCD imaging
workshop. Not bad considering how we had to battle the clouds.

Caldwell 58 / NGC3242 / Ghost of Jupiter

This is a picture of Venus over the Prudential building in Boston as viewed out of my office window on March 3.

Crescent Moon – 12/31/08

C11-SCT with a 6.3 Focal reducer

Orion Starshoot Solar System Color Imager

4 image mosaic

Processed with Maxim DL and Adobe Photoshop

Venus

C11-SCT

Orion Starshoot Solar System Color Imager

8 image stacked composite

Processed with Maxim DL and Adobe Photoshop

Attached is a photo of Venus I took on 2/9 at 6:20. It was taken
with a C11-SCT and a 2x Barlow with an Orion Starshoot Solar System
Camera. This is a stack of 6-1 second exposures and was processed with
Maxim DL and Adobe Photoshop.

Attached is a photo of one of my favorite Deep Space objects in
the winter sky, it's actually the 1st deep space object I observed.
This photo is (4) 30 second stacked images from my C11-SCT
utilizing a Meade DSI Deep Sky Imager Color CCD and Maxin DL to capture.
It was stacked and edited utilizing Adobe Photoshop.

C/2006 OF2 Broughton, animated GIF of comet C/2006 OF2 Broughton that illustrated the movement over a 90 minute period.

The field of view is around 30 arc minutes. It appears as a small 2.5' faint 10.5 magnitude speck with little movement from our vantage point. It's currently just over 3 AU from Earth.

I did a couple of others, like 29P, another faint small speck that's 7 AU's out and showed even less movement. I'll eventually find the time to process the images from the others.

Object passing by C/2007 N3 Lulin on Feb. 16th, 2009

Comet Lulin at 6th magnitude passing Alpha 1 Librae, Zubenelgenubi, and companion, also known as the Southern Claw (of Scorpius) on 02/06/09 @ 0352hrs EST. Rehoboth, Mass., Sony DSC F717, Afocal, 40mmEP, 30 second exposure.

$Comet Lulin, Here is a photo of C/2007 N3 Lulin taken on the morning of Jan. 17 (temp. one below 0!). The comet is in Libra and brightening. It seemed around 8th mag. on this morning. Taken from Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Sony DSC F 717, 120mm refractor, afocal through 40mm EP (25x with camera slightly zoomed).$

Sun Pillar taken from a camera phone at 6:40 AM 11-28-08

Jupiter & Venus & Moon taken with a Fuji digital camera on a tripod with an automatic

Jupiter & Venus & Moon. Satellites of Jupiter are visible.

Moon, Venus & Jupiter Conjunction, December 1, 2008. Minolta dImage 7i on Vixen GP mount (undriven). 2sec. From Seagrave Observatory.

Dave Huestis took this image from Buck Hill with a digital camera and no tripod.

aurora_pink_10 30 03_John Kocur_filtererd_res

aurora_pink2_10 30 03 John Kocur_filtered_res

$Saturn's satellites: Sony DSC-F717, 30 seconds @ f2.4. ISO 400, Orion Shorty Barlow 2X, 40mm EP. 120mm refractor. Camera at maximum zoom, tungsten setting. Satellites from left are: Titan, mag. 8, Rhea, Dione, Tethys, mag. 10, and on the right side of the planet at the 3:00 position, Enceladus, mag. 11.7. Photos taken 03/30/2008., taken 03/30/2008.$

$Saturn: orientation shot: Sony DSC-F717,1/6 second @ f/8, ISO 200. Orion Shorty Barlow 2X, 40mm EP. 120mm refractor. Camera at maximum zoom, tungsten setting, taken 03/30/2008.$