This page presents a hodge-podge of astronomical images, the majority of which were made using equipment from the Vol State astronomy labs.  For each thumbnail, you can click on the image to see the full-size version.

The most commonly-used equipment is a Nikon CoolPix 4500 digital camera afocally coupled to one of the college's 5-inch, F9.4 Burgess refractors via a 28-mm eyepiece.

October 27, 2004 Lunar Eclipse

These images were taken with the CoolPix/refractor combination noted above.  The sky was mostly cloudy and the shots were taken through intermittent breaks in the clouds.  This cloud cover (and the final game of the World Series) prevented any imaging of totality.  In the fourth image you can see some darkening on the Moon's face from these clouds.

    10:53 pm CDT.  1 sec at F2.6

    10:55 pm CDT.  8 sec at F2.6

    11:03 pm CDT.  1 sec at F2.6

    11:35 pm CDT.  1/125 sec at F2.6

Mars' 2003 apparition

    Several sketches of Mars were made through the 5" scopes during the summer of 2003.  Click on this thumbnail to see these sketches.

Dayllight Occultation of Jupiter, Nov 9, 2004

These shots were taken through a 5" refractor by hand-holding a Kodak digital camera to the eyepiece.  You can see the vignetting due to not getting the camera exactly on-axis with the eyepiece.  Other than cropping, these images have not been processed.

10:11 am CST                                 10:15 am CST                                 10:52 am CST

(1/125 s, f5.6, 37mm, ISO 100)                              (1/250 s, f5.6, 46 mm, ISO 100)                          (1/350 s, f5.6, 37 mm, ISO 100)

Transit of Mercury, Nov 8, 2006

On the afternoon of Nov 8, 2006, Mercury passed across the face of the Sun.  The initial stages of the transit were clouded out, but it eventually cleared.  Here are some images taken with the CoolPix coupled to a 5-inch refractor.

3:40 pm CDT                                3:47 pm CDT

August 28, 2007 Lunar Eclipse

These images were taken with the CoolPix/refractor combination noted above.  The sky was very hazy and put an orange cast on the photos that was much stronger than the naked eye view.  The images have been color balanced somewhat to make them appear more like the naked eye view.  The moon was low in the southwest during the event, especially during totality.  To record the image of totality the effect ISO was set at 800 and the shutter speed used was still 8 sec.  That's why the image is so grainy.  In the last two images you can see the bluish tint to the edge of Earth's umbra (toward the bottom of the Moon).  This is due to ozone in the Earth's upper atmosphere.

4:14 am CDT         4:45 am CDT       4:46 am CDT       4:51 am CDT        4:53 am CDT

Elliptical Orbits

These images are composites of images taken of the Sun & the Moon showing the change in their apparent size due to the elliptical orbits of the Earth around the Sun (seen by the Sun photo) and the Moon around the Earth (seen by the Moon photo).  These were taken with the CoolPix through a 114-mm Tasco reflector (yes, actually!) with a 900 mm focal length.

     Sun                            Moon

Mars in the Beehive

May 24, 2008  This image is a stack of 7 frames using RegiStax.  The images were taken using a Pentax K100d DSLR and a 210 mm lens at F4.0.  Exposures were 20 sec at 800 ISO.  The camera was piggybacked on a 10-inch Dob on an equatorial platform.  A little bit of wavelet processing was done on the stacked image.

Last Modified May 26, 2008.