The amateur astronomers thread

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Thought I'd start a thread for all of us who love astronomy and telescopes.
I got my first 4.5" newtonian when I was around 10, and I've loved astronomy ever since.
Here are some pics that I've taken with my 5" celestron SCT.


[img][800:600]http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/jetbuilder/astrophotography/m4218subs2.jpg[/img]
[img][800:600]http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/jetbuilder/astrophotography/group2.jpg[/img]
[img][800:450]http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj314/jetbuilder/astrophotography/IMG_0133.jpg[/img]

I only have an older telescope, so I can't take any pictures. I've looked at the moon plenty of times, though.

I first saw saturn through a telescope around 2 ears ago. Twas the first time I actually saw an object in detail before. Twas indeed awesome. Nice Pics

Ever tried to view Mercury? I hear that at a very certain time of year you can just make it out over the horizon. Mars and Venus are easy ones to find.

Which camera did you have attached to take those images? How long was the exposure for the nebula? Beautiful images!

I used my nikon D60
it was a combination of ten 30 second exposures @ ISO1600
I'm limited to 30 second exposures because my mount's tracking isn't too great.
I either need to invest in an autoguider, and\ or get a good GEM mount.
Been looking at the Orion Atlas 8 scope, but I don't have an extra $1600 laying around.

Really beautiful pictures!! !

I'm happy to know that. Apparently you need to drop some serious coin for a good tracking unit that will not cause blur/star trails? Still cool, nonetheless; even with stacked images! What software do you use to stack images?

I use sharpcap to stack the images from my nikon.
The planetary images were taken with the Meade LPI using autostar suite software.