Astrophotography

Photographing Things in the Sky

Astrophotography is about the most demanding thing that you can do with a camera, other than (I suppose) working in a war zone. These are some of my better astrophotographs.

I like some of my Hale Bopp photos the best. I have never seen finer photos of that comet than the ones that I took. With that said, I find fault in every one of these images. I don’t know if it’s possible to take a ‘perfect’ astrophotograph.

For tips on taking simple astrophotographs of your own, download my Powerpoint presentation, Introduction to Astrophotography, which I created for a class at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in September 2001. You need to be careful, methodical and persistent to take good astrophotos. Careful planning is essential before you shoot.

Go to the Using My Photos page on this site for instructions on how to obtain high-resolution versions of these images from me. I don’t charge money for my photos, but I do require a photo credit in your end-product in exchange for the use of my images. Key words: astrophotography images.

Hale Bopp sunrise medium format

Hale Bopp closeup

Hale-Bopp wide angle long exposure in medium format showing twin tails

Hale Bopp over Longs Peak

Hale Bopp through trees

Hale Bopp double-tail detail

Table Mountain 2

Table Mountain 3

Table Mtn dish antenna mf

Moon & Venus in the Mojave desert handheld shot from the back of a truck

Solar limb

Sunspots 2

Table Mtn dish antenna med format.jpg

Solar H-alpha

Sunspots with 25-mm eyepiece and Barlow

Southern sky Milky Way detail

Fisheye view of Milky Way

Milky Way southern sky fisheye view

Milky Way 2-minute exposure

Milky Way 3-minute exposure

North American nebula medium format

Lagoon nebula

M-22 globular cluster

Star field 0293 (2-mins)

Star field 0295 (2-mins)

Star field 0297 (2-mins)

Star field 0301 (2-mins)

Andromeda M-31 4 mins closeup

Andromeda M-31 4 mins wide angle

Pleiades 2 mins

Southern Cross

Jewel Box and Coal Sack (southern sky)

Orion with M-42 wide angle

Magellanic galaxies in the aurora australis

Mauna Kea sky handheld exposure no. 15

Full moon

Lunar eclipse frame 09

Lunar eclipse

Eclipsed Moon 490

Moonset on flatirons ridge

Solarized moon

Pixel-inverted moon

Frank Sanders Three Rivers astrophotography setup

New Zealand sunset at my astrophotography site at Invercargill