"What an amazing ability, to see and photograph something millions of light years away as it is happening millions of years ago! It's like a time machine" Ken James
Although I have been 'into' Astronomy throughout my whole life I didn't get to see through a Telescope until I was 27.
It would be another 20 years before I was able to connect a camera to a Telescope and photograph the incredible objects I could see.
And as most, I am fairly well addicted. There is something about the Universe that makes us want to explore it more.
In this site I display my images so you can see that space is not empty. It is full of amazing objects practically everwhere you point a Telescope!
TECHNICAL:
All the images in this site were photographed by me, from Snake Valley, Victoria, Australia.
Most of the images were taken with a Canon 350d DSLR mounted to a Saxon ED80 Refractor Telescope on a Skywatcher EQ6 mount.
To keep the tracking accurate a Saxon 120mm Refractor is used with a Phillips 840k ToUcam webcam for accurate guiding of the mount.
Other equipment used: 12" f5 Dobsonian Reflector, 200mm Tal 'Klevtsov', modified Phillips ToUcam, Meade Deep Sky Imager,
Programs: ImagesPlus, PhotoShop CS, PaintShop Pro, Cartes du Ciel, Guidemaster, Registax v3
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The Moon.
Our nearest neighbour.
Theories are developing that our moon may not be a moon at all, but a small planet, making us an 'Earth/Luna planetary double.
The minerals that make up the Moon are visible when colour saturation is raised on lunar images.
These Lunar images are captured with a Philips ToUcam webcam inserted into the telescope focuser and a Kodak happy-snap pocket camera held up to an eyepiece
CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE
I am not a very good planetary imager and it shows.
This is the best Jupiter image I have ever been able to capture and it is far from the great results most people get.
Not being a planetary imager means that this particular gallery will not have many images.
I will atttempt to get better with time, but for now this is all I have.
Nebulae are some of the most beautiful sights you will see in the night sky
Displaying many colours and shapes, full of stars, and spread over vast distances of space.
But they can be extremely difficult to photograph due to a mixture of bright and faint areas within the same nebula.
Here is a small sample of some Nebulae that I have imaged using a Philips ToUcam webcam modified for long exposure and a Canon 350d DSLR
Our Solar System is a tiny speck inside a Galaxy called the Milky Way Galaxy which contains millions, possibly billions, of other stars and Solar Systems.
When we look up into the night sky all the stars we see belong to our Milky Way Galaxy, but beyond them, and beyond what appears to be vast 'empty' regions of space are billions of other Galaxies, each containing billions of stars.
These far flung islands of light are huge and very distant, but our cameras capture them quite easily.
Galaxies come in many shapes, the most common known shape being the 'Spiral' Galaxy.
Here is a collection of the Galaxies I have imaged so far.
Galaxies are one of my favourite subjects to photograph, so expect this gallery to grow.
As exciting as it is seeing and photographing Galaxies, I find one thing far more exciting, and that is seeing and photographing 'clusters' of very distant Galaxies.
These Galaxy clusters may contain as many as 1200 Galaxies within the camera frame.
They also consist of various shaped and coloured Galaxies, and are often many billions of light years away from us.
And yet we can still photograph them.
We are actually looking back into time many billions of years ago.
I imaged these Galaxy Clusters with a Canon 350d DSLR
Stars appear to randomly litter the sky, but they also form in clusters.
The most common form is the 'Open Star Cluster' but surrounding every Galaxy are hundreds, or even thousands, of 'Globular Clusters' containing thousands or even millions of stars.
They appear as almost miniature Galaxies.
In fact recent discoveries may prove that the largest known Globular Cluster 'Omega Centauri' may actually be a small Galaxy, not a Globular Cluster due to the high probablity of a Black hole at it's centre, which are only found within galaxies.
Here is a collection of some 'Open' and 'Globular' star clusters I photographed with a Canon 350d DSLR
It has been a long journey so far, but in some ways it feels as if it has only just begun.
Although I have been interested in Astronomy since the early 60's I didn't get to see through a Telescope until 1984 when I built my own from parts purchased from a telescope shop, and I built the mount from plumbing pipes! My first views of Saturn blew me away!
Time passes along and so does the equipment used.
20 years after building my 1st telescope I have had an assortment of gear including reflectors and refractors, large and small, plus an assortment of cameras to image the sky.
From the simple Phillips ToUcam webcam through to a Canon 350d DSLR, right up to the camera I use now: a Mallincam Xtreme AstroVideo Camera for 'Live' viewing of objects in full colour on a PC monitor, TV, or projected on a huge wall!
Yes, it's been an exciting adventure so far,
But I must admit, the most fun I have had throughout all the forms of Astronomy I have dabbled in, Video Astronomy is the most enjoyable by far.
Not only do I get to see Deep Space Objects 'Live' and in full colour, but I also get to share those views with the world as I broadcast my live images on the internet at 'Night Skies Network'.
Here is a gallery of some of the equipment I have used over time:
march and november every year I am involved in the SVAA astronomy camps held at the snake valley camp in victoria australia
the 4 night long camps brings amatuer astronomers together from across australia to enjoy the company of like-minded people and to take advantage of the amazing dark sky at snake valley
the camps have been running twice a year since 2005 and are gaining in popularity. 2008 brought us our 1st international guest 'Remus Chua' the astrophotographer from Singapore
apart from observing and astrophotography there are talks, workshops, entertainment, and a big feast on the saturday night
this is a collection of my astrophotography put into video form with music.
My hope is that my videos improve with time
'Astrophotography part 1' is from when I first started astrophotography and the images are captured with a Philips ToUcam webcam modified for long exposures
part 2 shows only a slight improvement
the images in part 3 are captured with a Canon 350d DSLR
'Video Astronomy Part 1' is the beginning of my venture into using specialised AstroVideo Cameras to give a 'Live' image and for 'Live' internet broadcasting
click on the full-screen icon to see video full size
hit 'esc' to return to this screen
Astrophotography part 1
part 2
part 3
©Ken James 2005-2010 All rights reserved.
