Photographer

Hunter Wilson

Location

Lexington, Ohio

Date

May 17, 2009

Equipment

SBIG ST-4000XCM, Celestron 9.25 reduced 0.63, Astro-Physics Mach1GTO Mount

Description

Draco Trio of galaxies. SBIG ST-4000XCM, 24x600sec,imager Temp -20C, 40% Crop. A beautiful, if faint, trio in the constellation Draco is comprised of from left to right, face on spiral NGC 5985, elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and edge-on spiral NGC 5981. Distance from earth is about 100 million light years.

Photographer

Ted Judah

Location

Petaluma, CA

Date

April 22, 2009 6:08:13 AM

Equipment

Orion 100 ED, Canon 30d prime focus.

Description

Venus reemerging from behind the moon. About 100th of a second shutter speed made the blue sky dark.

Photographer

Igor Chekalin

E-mail

ichekalin2@gmail.com

Location

Taganrog, Russia

Date

13 clear nights in March and April 2009

Equipment

Canon 350D(self-modded), 10" Newton (254/1200mm) on EQ6-PRO mount with auto-guiding. Astrodon 6nm H-alpha filter. Baader 8nm O-III filter.

Description

This image was taken during March and April 2009. 13 clear nights. Light-polluted urban sky (visual limit 4.0m)

Photographer

Craig & Tammy Temple

Location

Hendersonville, TN

Date

April 23, 25 & 26, 2009

Equipment

Celestron C8 SCT with Celestron f/6.3 FR/FF; Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD, Guided; Canon 350D (self-modified) w/Astronomik EOS Clip IR filter + 2" Hutech IDAS LPS filter; Best 67/90 180s & best 59/62 150s @ ISO 1600

Description

Despite its magnitude of 8.5, M101 is a difficult target due to it's low surface brightness. At 170,000 ly across, The Pinwheel is a large face-on spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major covering almost 1/2 degree of the sky. Pierre Mechain discovered this galaxy in 1781, and Charles Messier verified its position. He then added it to his catalog as one of his final entries.

Photographer

Roy Finley

Location

10M SE of Mechanicsville, VA 23111

Date

4/27/09 8:40 PM EDT

Equipment

Canon EOS Rebel w/ 100-300mm Canon zoom lens @approx 200mm setting on fixed tripod. Camera was used in programmable auto mode w/ ISO400 selected as film speed. All that and a LOT of luck

Description

2 Photos to be considered: One shows the Moon, Mercury, and Pleiades as a wide shot w/ trees on the horizon to provide context. Second image is a tightest possible shot of the 3 with the exposure better suited to showing the whole scence (and particularly the moon) to much better effect. First image is perhaps more "aesthetically appealing" but the 2nd image is much better technically. In either event I think they're good examples of the kind of photo opportunity that your magazine informs amateurs about and that's a good thing. Sending photo #1 now - please reply to tee_whun@yahoo.com if you want the other image because it's too large to send at a decent resolution. Speaking of which, do you folks have any facility for accepting 3-4 Mb full resolution files??

Photographer

Rick Baldridge

E-mail

rickbaldridge@comcast.net

Location

Los Altos, CA, USA

Date

April 26, 2009 9:30pm PDT

Equipment

Canon XTi Rebel with 200mm F2.8 lens.

Description

Waxing crescent Moon with very bright Earthshine above the Pleiades (Seven Sisters) which are also above the bright planet Mercury. Below Mercury is the very red variable star AS Arietis.

Photographer

Michael Boschat

E-mail

aa063@chebucto.ns.ca

Location

Apartment balcony in Halifax,Nova Scotia,Canada

Date

April 26,2009 at 9:30pm

Equipment

Tripod mounetd Canon Rebel 350D with 18-55mm lens set at 55mm with a 10 second exposure at f/5.6, 400 ISO.

Description

Image of cresent Moon with Pleiades (M45) and Mercury over Halifax.

Photographer

Enrico Africa

Location

West Chester, Ohio

Date

4/22/2009, 9:59 AM EDT

Equipment

TMB 130 SS Canon Digital Rebel XTi operating at ISO 100

Description

This is the Moon and Venus shortly after the Moon's grazing occultation (as seen from our location). This is a single 1/2000 second shot, processed in Photoshop to dim the bright sky background.

Photographer

Craig and Tammy Temple

Location

Hendersonville, TN

Date

April 4, 2009

Equipment

Celestron C8 SCT with Celestron f/6.3 FR/FF on Atlas EQ-G w/EQMOD, Guided; modified Canon 350D w/Astronomik EOS Clip IR filter + 2" Hutech IDAS LPS filter; Best 96/105 120s @ ISO 1600; Captured/Calibrated/Registered/Stacked/Initial processing in ImagesPlus; Post processed in Photoshop CS4

Description

M51 in Canes Venatici is a beautiful face-on spiral just 3 degrees NE of Alkaid, the last star in the handle of The Big Dipper. The small companion galaxy is NGC5195. This image is slightly over 3 hours total integration time taken on April 4, 2009. The temperature was about 60° F.

Photographer

Dave Cotterell

Location

Castleton, ON, Canada

Date

2009 03 21, 1:56pm EDT

Equipment

Canon XSi, 10mm lens f/3.5, ISO 100, 1/1000sec.

Description

Single Solar Halos are fairly common when the sun shines through high thin cloud layers. The second, outer halo is much less commonly seen due to lack of contrast with the clouds and is also more difficult to photograph due to its large angular extent which puts it outside all but the widest lenses. Notice that the 'rainbow' colour effect which can be faintly seen is reversed in the secondary halo due to the double refraction. Also it can be seen that there is more scattered sunlight between the two halos than inside our outside them.