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The images below were captured on 20 Feb 2009 during a visit to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park.  The observing site was the Furnace Creek Airport at approximately 192 feet below sealevel.  The skies cleared about 11:30, after being cloudy for most of the earlier evening, although a very thin layer of clouds reduced the transparency and affected the color of the rendered objects.   Unless otherwise noted, these images were captured with my Orion ST120 and the Mallincam Color Hyper Plus camera piggybacked on a 10-inch Meade LX200GPS.  I used the MFR-3 focal reducer with only 5mm of spacers to produce a focal ratio of about 2.75.  The images are annotated as being either “single frame with no post-processing or as multiple frame stacks with no post-processing.   Exposure times were either 7, 14, or 28 seconds depending on the brightness of the object.   What you see here is exactly what I saw at the moment the images were captured. 

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M1	M5	M8	M13
M16	M17	M20	M51
M81	M83	NGC 2903	NGC 4038/39
Omega Centauri	Centaurus A	Comet Lulin	IC 434

After testing some settings changes on my Mallincam on this near full Moon Friday evening, 9 January 2009, I decided to try my hand at capturing some images of our closest neighbor. The moon was so bright, even with the Mallincam’s shutter set at 1/12,000, I still needed to cut the moon’s brightness with a polarizing filter set to filter about 50% of the moon’s light. The detail seen on my CRT monitor was amazing. This experience has rekindled my desire to study the moon in greater detail. The full view of the moon was captured with my Orion ST120, while the closeups were captured with the 10-inch LX200.

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Remember - Magnified images are mirror images because of view through LX200 (SCT).

Near full moon over Vegas

Northeastern Seas

Sea of Serenity

Crater Copernicus

Crater Tycho

The images below were captured during a visit to Rio Rancho, a suburb of Albuquerque. They are an example of what can be accomplished by a rank amateur under what I would consider moderate light pollution. My observing site was in front of daughter’s house with two street lamps and various front porch and patio lights blazing at me. The light was bright enough that I almost didn’t need a red light to see the letters on my laptop keyboard. Unless otherwise noted, these images were captured with my Orion ST120 and the Mallincam Color Hyper Plus camera. The color halos around bright stars are the result of the achromatic ST120. My next purchase will be an anti-fringing filter for the ST120. As with all other images currently on this website, these images are single frame exposures with no post processing. Exposure times were primarily 7 seconds for the clusters and 14 seconds for the galaxies and nebulae.   What you see here is exactly what I saw at the moment the images were captured.  I hope you enjoy these images.

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M1	M31, M32, M110	M33	M35
M36	M37	M38	M42 and M43
M44	M45	M46	M47
M48	M50	M67	M74
M77	M79	M81 and M82	M81
M82	M97	NGC 891	NGC 936
NGC 2903	Flame/Horsehead	Flame/Horsehead	Double Cluster

The image below was captured with my new Orion ST120 (a 120mm achro) on an evening where I experienced dew for the first time anywhere near Las Vegas. You’ll notice the affects of the dew on the image like the diffraction spike on Alnitak, the secondary reflection near the center, and the general fuzziness of the image. I was impressed that the ST120 could even pulled down the Horsehead under these conditions. Can’t wait to get back out to Redstone on a night with better conditions.

Flame and Horsehead Nebulae through dew

These images were captured during an LVAS outing at Redstone Picnic Area adjacent to Lake Mead near Las Vegas, NV.  Redstone is approximately 30 miles north of the Fee Station on Northshore Road.  Even though this site is 35 miles (straight line distance) from Las Vegas, the Vegas light dome is still very prominent.  I forgot to use my Lumicon Deep Sky Filter to knock down the light pollution, so the backgrounds aren’t as dark as they could be and the contrast isn’t all that great.  The MallinCam is allowing me to see things I would not normally see in my 10″ Intelliscope or in a 25″ scope, for that matter.

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Helix Nebula	Dumbbell Nebula	Triangulum Galaxy	Flame Nebula
Horsehead Nebula	Sculptor Galaxy	NGC 891 - Galaxy	Thors Helmet
	Pinwheel Galaxy	Owl Nebula

These images were my first attempt to capture Deep Sky images with my Mallincam Color Hyper Plus camera.  These images are unprocessed single frames taken from the Mallincam through a USB capture device using ULead VideoStudio 6.0.

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M42 - Orion's Nebula

M82 - Cigar Galaxy