McDonald Observatory

[statman]

Hey gents, here a a few neat pics I took whilst out in West Texas at the McDonald Observatory this weekend...

First up is a shot of the Harlan J. Smith 107" telescope. I caught a car going down the road that leads to the scope. 90 second exposure.



Next up is a shot of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope that has a 433" mirror used for spectoscopy. 276 second exposure.



And lastly is a shot of Jupiter and the four Galilean moons, Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. 3 second exposure.



All taken with a Canon XSi with the 55-250 EF IS lens.

[Alex655321]

Those are some cool shots Paul !

[Collection King 13]

Very Cool Shots! Thanks for sharing!

[statman]

Originally Posted by Alex655321

Those are some cool shots Paul !

Originally Posted by Collection King 13

Very Cool Shots! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys!

[Simon Williams]

i was thinking it would be pictures you took at a McDonalds.

nice pics by the way.

[statman]

Originally Posted by Simon Williams

i was thinking it would be pictures you took at a McDonalds.

nice pics by the way.

LOL

Thanks dude!

[CessnaDriver]

Good work.

Not enough people look up anymore, and some wouldn't know what they were looking at. Light pollution doesn't help. City dwellers are losing that connection with the stars I think.

[Kujo]

Nice shots... I've tried to do these sorts of pictures a couple of times, but they have never worked that well. They all seem too close if thats possible, even at 24mm. not enough sky is visible to get that nice effect - but then I see your shots at 187mm (in the first shot) and it looks ace...

Gonna have to get out there again and see what I can do

[statman]

Originally Posted by CessnaDriver

Good work.

Not enough people look up anymore, and some wouldn't know what they were looking at. Light pollution doesn't help. City dwellers are losing that connection with the stars I think.

Thanks CD! Personally, I love star gazing. To me it's always fascinating. What's even cooler is seeing some of the star shots taken by people that know what they are doing. The camera can pick up so much more than what your eyes can see.

Here's a thread on the Canon digital forums about astro photography

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/...play.php?f=136

There's some really neat pics inside.

[statman]

Originally Posted by Kujo

Nice shots... I've tried to do these sorts of pictures a couple of times, but they have never worked that well. They all seem too close if thats possible, even at 24mm. not enough sky is visible to get that nice effect - but then I see your shots at 187mm (in the first shot) and it looks ace...

Gonna have to get out there again and see what I can do

Thanks! These pics were fairly easy but still it took several attempts to get decent results. I wish I would have taken the pics about 45 minutes to an hour earlier. There would have been a bit more ambient light on the telescopes and that would have made for a better pic I think. I took these around midnight and it was pitch black up there at that point.

I'm really wanting to get a good Milky Way shot, but have thus far only had mediocre results. I to get a decent 50mm prime lens to play with or maybe something even wider with a big aperture.

Yeah, get out and keep trying. eventually, you'll come up with a technique that works. I'd love to see what you come up with.