For those into astronomy here is a picture I took of M11 on the 3rd

Thanks for sharing the picture, Mary. Photography is a big hobby of mine and have been experimenting from time to time with star trail. Just don't have a lot of time and ideally need a place away from any city.

This was taken at F9 through a 1370mm focal length telescope on a tracking mount. ISO 1600, 2 minutes exposures. I stacked 20 exposures to get that.

Did you do that in RAW or JPEG? I like to do my pictures in RAW but find that there is a lot of work to be done afterwards. I guess as I get better it will become easier.

What kind of setup did you use to take that picture? I know there are a couple of different ways. And did you use a Photoshop program to stack your images, or is there another way that Iam unaware of? I have Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3. I have experimented with HDR images but have never stacked 20... together. Sounds like a lot of time and work.

Thanks again for sharing your image and knowledge.

The local astronomy club had a moon viewing last night, geared towards kids. Took my 10 yr old daughter, it was a great night, warm too. A variety of scopes were there, up to 12". We looked at the moon, Jupiter and its moons, the ring nebula, a comet (2009 something or other) in the constellation Hercules, and some binary stars.

It was fun. Made me want to build or buy a telescope and get back to the pleasure of pondering all that is out there.

Nice work, Mary!

Raw using a program called Nebulosity that does most of the stacking work once the imaging run is done. It takes all the images then you decide which exposures to keep and it stacks them. Then it is time to process using levels and curves in Nebulosity or Photoshop.
My observatory



Telescope setup



Control desk with computers and monitors, if you look through the window opening the red square is another monitor out by the telescope to make focusing easier. The red is a screen filter to preserve night vision.



Operating position in night mode, poor picture due to low light



I have a 10 inch reflector I use for visual observing while the camera is doing its preprogrammed thing.

Nice setup. Always wanted my own observatory. I think I'd get into asteroid and comet hunting - set up an automated system. It's one of those things amateurs can still contribute to the science. I'd probaby move to the SW for the great viewing.

Very Nice Setup!!! I have a 10" Orion Dobsonian Reflector Intelliscope. The weather is getting very nice to get it out. Wish I had your setup!!! Maybe one day I'll have a "house" for my telescope!!!

AR

Had hit and miss clouds last night so I had my 10 inch Zhummel reflector out. Mars was great in between the clouds.

Another picture from last fall, I have been sick all winter so little astronomy.