Last updated: 9 January 2004
Some LXD55 users have sent me examples of their astrophotography. If you have some examples you would like included here please send me a description of how you made the astrophotos and a copy of the images as GIF or JPEG files (due to internet email gateway issues, please send only one image file per message or ZIP or Stuff multiple files). Send to email@example.com. Alternatively, if you have created your own web page with your examples please let me know and I'll include a link to your site.
|chris provost (firstname.lastname@example.org) [9 Jan 04]|
This is my first ever attempt at prime focus photography. 10" SN on
LXD55 mount OM-1 Kodak 800 film, somewhere between 5 and 7 minutes
unguided! I was shocked with the results and also confused as to why
P.E. is almost undetected and how the hell I got such a good polar
alignment in a quick 10 minute setup? This image has not been processed
in any way other than scanned and mailed to you!
|Tommy Lim (email@example.com) [31 Dec 03]|
These are my new astrophotos taken from my best friend's house backyard with
his MEADE LXD55 SN6 plus WO DC-28 digital camera eyepiece.
Hope you like it and wish you all happy new year!
A great regards from Malaysia!!!
|Brett Edwards (firstname.lastname@example.org) [11 Oct 03]|
Hello... Just browsing through some of thre images sent to you on your
site. I thought These were pretty good so I am sending them. I am
visiting in the UK at the moment and am using my Yahoo account. These
were done with the lxd 55 and SN-8. A webcam was used fot the moon and a
FUJI S2 PRO for the orion shot.
I have a question about the blue gohsts above the bright stars in the orion image, seen these before? Could it be the UHTC coating?
Mike here: The blue spots look like something from the camera rather than the telescope. Could you see these with your eye?
|Nelson Viegas (email@example.com) [19 Aug 03]|
Here's my attempt to capture globular cluster M15 from my "window observatory" under the usual bad conditions. LXD55 SN 10" on the prime focus, using a ToUCam Pro, 15x5 second exposures, with dark frame and "light pollution" subtraction. All processed with Iris, and final adjustments done in PaintShop Pro.
|"Paul Lefevre" (firstname.lastname@example.org) [5 May 03]|
Just stumbled across your OPT-linked LXD55 pages...great start.
Thought I'd send along a couple of LXD55 image to add to your guest pages...
First one is NGC1977 & vicinity, "The Running Man Nebula," with an 8" SN LXD55. Second is the Horsehead Nebula, also with the 8" SN LXD55. StarlightXpress HX916 camera and SBIG CFW-8 color filter wheel. I love my Schmidt-Newt scopes, the optics are great and the fast focal ratios are an astroimager's dream come true :)
I have lots more images at: http://lefevre.darkhorizons.org/ccdimaging/pdlccd.htm
I also have a page showing how to redo the mirror cell on the SN LXD55s to remove the nasty clips that Meade put in, that pinch the optics and cause diffraction spikes. It's at: http://www.lefevre.darkhorizons.org/lxd55/clipectomy.htm
I'm local to OPT, have bought nearly all my astro gear from them, and think the 2 Mikes (Fowler and West) are the best :)
|"Jason Carden" (email@example.com) [3 Mar 03]|
Your Lxd55 site is coming along well. Keep up the good work.
I was browsing though the images and noticed quite a difference in the
quantity compared to your ETX site, so I've attached a contribution.
It's my first attempt at this nebula. It's a RBG composite of (2) 60 second
images per channel. Taken with my Meade Lxd55 5" Achromat and a Sbig ST8
with color filter wheel.
Mike here: Yes, the ETX Site is larger (>3000 pages) but it has been going since 1996!
|"Breivogel, Christopher" (firstname.lastname@example.org) [17 Feb 03]|
Since you've got a website on these scopes, I'm hoping you won't mind if
I ask you for some advice....
I was looking at some of your pictures you took with your ditigal camera (and one's I've seen in S&T made with digital cameras). I have tried taking a few pictures with my Olympus digital camera using a Scopetronix Maxview (40 mm lens) through my SN-10, but am getting rather disappointing results. I was wondering if you might have any suggestions for how I can get my pics to look more like yours. This is the best shot I've obtained of the Orion nebula using my camera's maximum exposure settings: F2.8, ISO 400 and 16 sec, and a remote control to snap the picture. Do you think that the camera isn't sensitive enough or that I'm doing something wrong with the scope (this is my first "real" scope, before I had an totally manual equatorial 4.5" Newtonian). Also do you know of any good shareware for combining images (I've tried Astrostack, but was wondering if there's any others).
Mike here: As to astrophotography, check out the Helpful Information --> Astrophotography page on my ETX Site. There is a lot of information there, including some info for Olympus users. Another popular program is Registrax (link on the Astronomy Links page on my ETX Site under Software). Your M42 shot is actually pretty good.
|Dwight & Lorna (email@example.com) [31 Dec 02]|
I have attached an image of M1 through my LXD SC10".
I took it with a Starlight Xpress MX7C - a composite of 24 one minute
images and processed with Maxlm DL.
The mount tracks well and I only lost one of twenty-five images taken.
With two minute exposures I could get about 2/3 of them as
|"Terry Pierson" (firstname.lastname@example.org) [19 Dec 02]|
Enclosed is a shot of M-13 at prime through the LXD SN10 UHTC. Please ignore the
crinkles present in the shot. By mistake, I rewound the film in mo OM-1
backwards and ruined the film. Figures.
Go to back to my LXD55 Home Page.