ETX-105 Astrophotography
 Image Gallery Index
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto pictures.

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Uranus
 Uranus
Uranus is only a tiny, featureless disk in a small telescope. This image was made from a series of 12-second exposures at high magnification.
Apparent brightness: 5.72
Apparent size: 3.7 arcsec

Telescope: Meade ETX-105 EC at f/35
Camera: MI-1300 CMOS sensor
Image Processing: Composite in Registax, Desaturate and adjust color

September 13, 2003 11:10pm PDT
Neptune
 Neptune and nearby stars
Neptune is in the box. The twin next to it is a background star that happens to be almost the same apparent brightness. Made from a series of 12-second exposures with high gain on the camera.
Apparent brightness: 7.86
Apparent size: 2.3 arcsec

Telescope: Meade ETX-105 EC at f/7
Camera: MI-1300 CMOS sensor
Image Processing: Composite in Registax using dark frame, Adjust levels so background is black

September 13, 2003 11:51pm PDT
Pluto
 Pluto at Opposition
Pluto, indicated. Click image for wider field view. Composite of 40 (out of 180) 40-second exposures. You can see Pluto's image is slightly elongated due to its apparent motion during the two hour recording. (I almost blew this shot. I had the sky software set to six days earlier without knowing it, so I aimed the telescope at the wrong place. Fortunately, Pluto was still within the frame.)
Apparent brightness: 13.8
Apparent size: 0.1 arcsec

Telescope: Meade ETX-105 EC at f/7.5
Camera: MI-1300 CMOS sensor
Image Processing: Composite in Registax using dark frame, Adjust levels so background is black, Unsharp mask

June 11, 2004

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