| One of my hobbies is astrophotography. I don't have a telescope yet, but I built a manual star-tracker so I can use an ordinary 35mm camera (a 1971 Pentax SP-500 with 55mm and 450mm lenses) to take some interesting time-exposure photos. This tracker is made of a steel hinge for strength. Here are some examples. | |
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Nov 19, 2002 Leonids storm, from Hartland, VT. Here's a report on the night's viewing. |
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Comet Hale-Bopp |
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Comet Hyakutake, 25 Mar 96, 11:34pm EST. 55mm lens, 30-second exposure on ISO 1000 film, f/2.8 |
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Comet Hyakutake, 26 Mar 96, 12:10am EST. 450mm lens,120-second exposure on ISO 1000 film, f/8. |
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Moon, May 1994. 450mm lens, f/11, 1/8 second on ISO 400 film. |
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Annular solar eclipse, 10 May 1994. Taken at Fairlee, VT, USA, in the direct path of totality. 450mm lens,f/22 with Solar Skreen filter. |
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Same eclipse, 500mm mirror lens, f/8 and Solar Skreen filter. |
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Mars, taken near its closest approach to Earth. Nikon CoolPix 4500 camera, through a 6" Meade refractor. Sky was quite hazy. |
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Venus transit, 06 June 2004. Monocular-projection onto white board, photographed with Coolpix 4500. There were technical difficulties, though... |
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Stars, taken from Lebanon, NH, USA, October 1993. 55mm lens, f/2.8, manually tracked for 5 minutes on ISO 400 film. Direction 15 degrees East, 50 degrees Alt. This view shows about 1/8 of the frame. |