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B o b C h r i s t m a s ' D I G I T A L A s t r o p h o t o G a l l e r y
A few years ago, I switched over from film astrophotography to digital astrophotography, and I've never looked back.
I took these astrophotos with a Canon Digital Rebel 300D digital SLR camera body. So far I've used just two lenses:
--- Canon 18 - 55mm, f/3.5 - 5.6 zoom lens
--- Tamron 300mm f/2.8 telephoto lens
All images shown here except the Jupiter and Milky Way shot were taken through the Tamron telephoto lens, then cropped and magnified. All of these images were taken with the lens and camera mounted on a Super Polaris equatorial mount, with its axis of rotation pointed at the north pole of the sky. The mount is equipped with an electrically-driven clock drive, whose purpose is to automatically track the stars in the sky, thus compensating for the Earth's rotation. This prevents the "trailing" of the stars on such images.
Most of these images were taken either from Spectacle
Lake Lodge near Barry's Bay,
Many of these images are composite ("stacked") images, combined into single images using Deep Sky Stacker.
NOTE 1: The M17 composite image consists of one image taken at Starfest, and another image taken at Spectacle Lake.
NOTE 2: Images are listed in reverse chronological order.
All images Copyright ©, by Bob Christmas
Click on any image for a bigger view.
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The Heart of The Virgo Galaxy Cluster (Markarian's Chain), April 12, 2010 This image contains numerous galaxies at the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster, on the border of the constellations Virgo and Coma Berenices. The brightest of these are the elliptical galaxies M84, M86 and M87.
Composite of 4 stacked images.
Location in Sky: Virgo and Coma Berenices Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 4 X 125 seconds = 8 minutes 20 seconds total |
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"The Leo Trio" of Galaxies [clockwise from top] NGC 3628, M65 and M66, April 11, 2010
Composite of 5 stacked images.
Location in Sky: Leo Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 5 X 120 seconds = 10 minutes total
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Mars and M44 (Beehive Cluster), April 11, 2010
Composite of 3 stacked images.
Location in Sky: Cancer Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8, set at f/4 Settings: f/4, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 X 98 seconds = 4 minutes 54 seconds total |
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The Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237, 39, 46), April 11, 2010
Composite of 8 stacked images.
Location in Sky: Monoceros Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 8 X 90 seconds = 12 minutes total |
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The Helix Nebula
(NGC 7293),
Location in Sky: Aquarius Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 7 X 92 seconds = 10 minutes 44 seconds total |
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The Perseus Double Cluster, September 13, 2009 Two bright open star clusters side by side.
Location in Sky: Perseus Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 X 93 secs = 4 minutes 39 secs total |
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Galaxy NGC 891,
Location in Sky: Andromeda Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 4 X 159.75 secs = 10 minutes 39 secs total |
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The Pinwheel
Galaxy (M101),
A classic spiral galaxy near the handle of the Big Dipper. North is to the right.
Location in Sky: Ursa Major Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 5 X 2 minutes = 10 minutes total |
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Galaxy NGC 2403,
A pretty spiral galaxy near the nose of the Great Bear (Ursa Major). North is to the right.
Location in Sky: Camelopardalis Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 minutes + (3 X 2 minutes) = 9 minutes total |
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Galaxies M81 and
M82,
Bode's Galaxies M81 (centre) and M82 (right), near the bowl of the Big Dipper. Two other galaxies appear in the image, NGC 3077 at top, and NGC 2976 at lower left. North is to the right.
Location in Sky: Ursa Major Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 minutes + (3 X 2 minutes) = 9 minutes total |
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The Owl Nebula (M97) and Galaxy M108, April 15, 2009
The Owl Nebula (M97) is a planetary nebula at lower right. The spiral galaxy M108 is the elongated smudge at upper left. These objects are barely a degree apart in the sky, near the bowl of the Big Dipper. North is to the left.
Location in Sky: Ursa Major Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 X 2 minutes = 6 minutes total |
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Galaxy NGC 4565,
An edge-on spiral galaxy with a dust lane. A few other much smaller galaxies pepper the image. North is at left.
Location in Sky: Coma Berenices Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 3 minutes + 2 minutes + 2 minutes = 7 minutes total |
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Open Cluster M35,
Another much farther away open cluster, NGC 2158, appears just to the lower right of M35.
Location in Sky: Gemini Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 2 minutes |
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The Pleiades Star Cluster (M45) September 23, 2008
This is the Pleiades Cluster (M45), also known as the Seven Sisters or Subaru.
Location in Sky: Taurus Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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The Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253) and Globular Cluster NGC 288, September 23, 2008
NGC 253 is at upper right, NGC 288 is at extreme lower left.
Location in Sky: Sculptor Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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The Summer Milky Way and Jupiter Setting Over Spectacle Lake, September 23, 2008
Lens: Canon EFS 18-55mm, set at 28mm and f/6.3. Exposure: 10 minutes |
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Open Cluster NGC 7789 in Cassiopeia, September 22, 2008
Location on Earth: Barry's Bay, Ontario Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 2 minutes |
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The Swan or
Omega Nebula (M17),
An emission nebula in Sagittarius. This is a stack (composite) of two separate images taken 13 months apart!
Location in Sky: Sagittarius Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposures: 2 minutes + 2 minutes = 4 minutes total |
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The Eagle Nebula
(M16),
An emission nebula in Serpens, just over the border from Sagittarius.
Location in Sky: Serpens Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 2 minutes |
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Open Star Cluster NGC 6939 and Galaxy NGC 6946, September 21, 2008 Above right is the open cluster NGC 6939, and, at lower left, is the Firecracker Galaxy (NGC 6946), so nicknamed because so many supernovae have occurred in it.
Location in Sky: Cepheus Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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Galaxies NGC 4631 and NGC 4656, May 6, 2008 The Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631), and, below and to its left, the Hockey Stick Galaxy (NGC 4656).
Location in Sky: Canes Venatici Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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Collage of Total Lunar Eclipse, February 20, 2008
RIGHT TO LEFT: 10:07 pm; 10:32 pm; 10:57 pm
Location on Earth: Burlington, Ontario Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/4, ISO 400 Exposure: 1/2 second each |
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The Andromeda Galaxy (M31), August 10, 2007
This image of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) also shows its dwarf elliptical companions, M32 below, and M110 above.
Location in Sky: Andromeda Location on Earth: Mount Forest, Ontario Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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The Triangulum
Galaxy (M33),
Location in Sky: Triangulum Location on Earth: Mount Forest, Ontario Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 3 minutes |
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The Hercules Globular Cluster (M13), May 7, 2007
Location in Sky: Hercules Location on Earth: Barry's Bay, Ontario Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 36
seconds |
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Open Cluster M67, May 6, 2007
Location in Sky: Cancer Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 60 seconds |
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M1 (the Crab Nebula) and a tumbling satellite, March 20, 2007
Location in Sky: Leo Lens: Tamron 300mm f/2.8 Settings: f/2.8, ISO 1600 Exposure: 48 seconds |
NEW
Keep on the lookout for future images!
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