About the Author...
The Arkansas Sky Observatory is pleased to announce and welcome Mr. Rick Krejci, a software engineer from Scottsdale, Arizona, as the overall moderator of the new ASTRO IMAGING Forum for the ASO Webpage.
Rick is well known in GO TO telescope and astro-imaging circles on the Internet, and has contributed very fine astrophotos via prime focus deep sky, detailed planetary, piggyback and CCD imaging through a wide variety of telescopes, from a 3.5" Meade ETX to his present 8" LX 90 telescope.
He is very proficient in the software applications of the latest digital and CCD imaging, but as will be seen from his fine deep sky contributions, his efforts with pure film are also splendidly rendered.
With the demands of his job (he was just invited, and declined, the opportunity to begin work at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii this year) and his growing family, Rick claims he has to find the energy to pursue his astronomical endeavors; however, those who correspond with him and use his valuable resources will note that he seems to be fairly accessible at all
hours of the night.
According to Rick, his enthusiasm in astronomy was really bolstered by the new GO TO computer technology:
"I had a 6" Newtonian for years but was always frustrated with my lack of skill finding objects and my lack of time for learning the sky....some people are surprised to learn that I'm still not that adept at knowing the sky! In fact, some find it OFFENSIVE that I haven't paid my "star hopping dues.
"I've grown up in the computer age, and don't have a problem letting it [computers on his LX-90 Meade] take some of the work out of my evenings, especially since I can usually only get our for 2-3 hours at a time.
"The wonderful thing about this hobby is that there are as many different ways to approach it as there are people."
Having gotten his Meade LX 90 in early 2001, Rick is now planning on upgrading to the Meade LX 200 10" telescope for more serious pursuits in astro imaging. "It turns out that the LX 90 is a far more capable scope in this realm than it originally was given credit."
We agree.....his outstanding high resolution photos of Jupiter and Saturn (taken with an ETX 90 scope) now grace the cover the new book "Astronomy With a Small Telescope" by Michael Weasner, contributions by P. Clay Sherrod and Richard Seymour. http://www.weasner.com/etx/book/using_etx.html and his astrophotography has been referenced in many articles throughout
2001.
We welcome Rick Krejci to the ASO Forum Team! Feel free to post questions and comments via the forum, as Rick periodically will be adding contributions on effective astro imaging and astrophotography!
Dr. Clay
A Beginner's Introduction to Astrophotography
Many beginners in astronomy are disappointed that their views into the heavens with their brand new telescope don't match those colorful pictures on the boxes of their telescopes, no to mention the incredibly detailed images from Hubble. Faced with this reality, most decide that the occasional peek at the moon is enough to sate their thirst for astronomy. Others decide they want to try their hand at creating those artful pictures themselves.
So, they head down to their local astronomy shop (or an internet message group) and ask for advice. The advice unfortunately often given ranges from "You need about $5000 worth of equipment to make any worthwhile photos" to "You should concentrate on observing for a few years before venturing into Astrophotography". Astrophotography needn't break you budget nor should it be reserved for the hardened veterans. Astrophotography is what rekindled my enthusiasm for this Hobby and still has me in a tight deathgrip.
I'm going to give a bird's eye view of Astrophotography to give you an idea of what's is currently the "state of the art" for Amateur Astrophotography.
The potentially cheapest objects to photograph are the planets and moon. Hopefully, you may already have sufficient equipment to do so, but don't even know it. You don't need a wedge, you don't need to guide and can get some great results. A webcam or video camera is ideal, as you can get multiple images and stack them to reduce effects of bad seeing and eek out
more details. 35mm photos are a little more challenging for these objects, since camera shake becomes and issue. Just about all consumer digital cameras are fantastic for the moon, but only a few can outdo a webcam for detailed planet shots.
Saturn Taken with a Toucam Pro through a 2x barlowed LX-90
Jupiter Taken with a Toucam Pro through a 2x barlowed LX-90
Moon (Alpine Valley area)taken with an Olympus 2040 2 megapixel digital camera afocally through a Televue 32mm Plossl on an LX-9035mm piggybacked photos are also for the budget conscious, although a wedge is necessary for shots of about a minute or more. The results can be outstanding, even unguided for several minutes. If you guide the shot through the eyepiece of the telescope, the results can be downright stunning.
Deep Sky photos are where the money starts to flow faster, without an upper limit. Basic webcams have been used for some Deep Sky Objects (DSOs). However, unmodified, the results don't really compare to the temperature controlled CCDs. Some consumer digital cameras can take some decent DSO shots as well, but again, not great compared to cooled CCDs.
The Double Cluster - Open Clusters NGC 864 and 884 make a nice wide field
sight. Taken with an Olympus 2040 through ShortTube 80mm F5 refractor with
32mm Televue Plossl piggyback on the LX-90.
Trapezium Region of M42 - The Great Orion Nebula taken with a Logitech Quickcam VC and LX-90.For DSOs, 35mm cameras are great and you can probably get a minute or 2 unguided exposure without much star trailing, which gets you in the game, but not by much. For great results, a wedge and guiding is a necessity. A basic 35mm SLR (ideally having a shutter which doesn't require batteries), a t-ring and an Off-axis guider or piggybacked guidescope (with lit reticle eyepiece) is a great setup for just about any DSO, as long as you're patient and steadfast about those 5-60 minute guiding sessions. Autoguiders can be a godsend as well, but sometimes you spend as much time fiddling with them as you would have if you would have just done it manually (it is still better for your eyes and back, though and may allow you to come in from the cold)
M20 - Trifid Nebula - 2x30 Minute exposures, Elitechrome200, Prime Focus of LX-90. Off Axis Guided with ST-5Finally, temperature controlled CCDs give fantastic, detailed results. However, their Field of View (FOV) is very limited, especially for low end CCD's. Adding color filters for RGB color work again adds more money (and complexity and exposure time). You can get a great basic used cooled CCD camera for $400-$800. I personally suggest buying used from a trusted source. Not only does this decrease the initial cash outlay, but it decreases any potential loss if/when you want to upgrade. I've bought and sold 2 different CCD cameras and have actually come out a little ahead.
M51 - The Whirpool Galaxy LX90 with f3.3 focal reducer, ST-5
M57 - The Ring Nebula, LX90 with f6.3 focal reducer, ST-237 w/ Colorwheel
M1 - The Crab Nebula, LX-90 w/ f6.3 focal reducer, ST-7E w/ ColorwheelPersonally, I use a webcam (Toucam Pro) for Planets and a consumer digital camera (Olympus 2040) afocally through a 32mm Televue Plossl for lunar shots.
I use both 35mm and SBIG CCD for DSOs. The CCD excels at light-grabbing in a short time, but it has a small Field of View (FOV). The 35mm produces rich, beautiful color slides or negatives, but takes much more patience.
Obviously, each of the above paragraphs raises more questions than it answers. This will give me a chance to write with some more detail on each one. I will say for every opinion stated here, there are about 100 equally valid opposite opinions. One most agree on is don't buy everything at once. Get stuff, learn the heck out of stuff, research new stuff and repeat. You need to form your own opinions through experience and research, and you'll appreciate the hobby more, instead of having a bunch of stuff you don't use effectively if at all.
Rick Krejci
Copyright Arkansas Sky Observatory © 2001 [A.S.O.] All rights reserved. Revised: January 30, 2004
