Gregory's Digital Camera Astrophotography Page

I am interested in astronomy and digital photography, so I suppose it's
natural that I am experimenting with using a Nikon Coolpix 900 digital
camera to photograph bright astronomical objects through a telescope.
I say "bright" because the CCDs in digital cameras are not sensitive
enough to acquire dim objects.   So,  it seems that digital camera astro
photography is limited to the moon and bright planets.

The moon is an easy target for a digital camera through a telescope.   These
pictures were taken through a Celestron C102 4" refractor on a Super Polaris
DX mount with various eyepieces but primarily with the 30mm Celestron Ultima
(for the lunar shots) and the 9mm Nagler (for the shots of Jupiter).

It is important to adjust the camera to its widest angle of view in order
to make it easier to acquire the image from the eyepiece.  Once the image
registers on the camera's CCD it is possible to "zoom in" somewhat if you
have a bracket or something to hold the camera in position.  Excellent
results on the moon are quite possible.   These images have been reduced
in both size and quality from the original 450kilobytes:

My next project will be a page with photographs of the moon in all of its phases,
and higher magnification images of various lunar features.

The planets are somewhat more elusive.   There is a magnification limit imposed
by the "seeing" or atmospheric conditions (I observe from a suburban location,
with plenty of heating currents etc.)   But here are  representative images
of Jupiter (all of which suffer from being cropped / sized etc. to fit this page:


 

The following shots of jupiter easily show the 'great tan spot', and the end of a transit.  A moon is visible
just merging out of the disk of the planet adjacent to the lower of  the equatorial belts (as pictured), the
sequence is actually right to left:

Further experimentation, now with a Nikon Coolpix 950 using manual control of the shutter.  Shot through a
C5 under mediocre seeing.  Using Scopetronix "digital T" system, which mates a digital camera to an eyepiece
using threaded rings (I highly recommend this system!).


 

I am still experimenting with techniques for making astro image capture on Digital
cameras more satisfying. 1