Bill and Ted's Excellent Deep Sky Astro-Picture Page

Deep Sky Selections
Deep sky objects are faint and thus very difficult to photograph. You need to take very long photographs and guiding is critical to the success of getting a good image. When looking at deep sky objects through a telescope, you do not see the colors and in most cases you will not see the detail you can see in a photograph.

The majority of these photographs were taken with telescopes that have an objective of 8" or more. After experimenting with several telescope sizes, Ted and I have decided the 8" variety are the most portable. On the other hand, the views through the larger scopes were totally excellent.

We started with cameras attached at the prime focus of the telescope and have since progressed into CCD imaging. Ted has built a most excellent robot we call TEDSIS (Ted's Excellent Deep Sky Imaging System) that has captured some very good images to date. TEDSIS manages to capture the same detail as a photograph in about a tenth of the time or less. Plus it has proved to be able to generate images while still near the city. Included below are several of Ted's most excellent images as well as film images we've taken.

Many of the objects are presented as multiple images showing the variety of results we've gotten.

M1 Crab Nebula - Celestron 8", prime focus at CAS dark site, 30 minutes by Ted!
M2 Globular Cluster - Meade 10", prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes
M2 Globular Cluster - Celestron 8", Cookbook CCD image by Ted!
M3 Globular Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes B&W Version
M8 Lagoon Nebula - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes
M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes
M15 Globular Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes
M15 Globular Cluster - Celestron 8", Cookbook CCD image by Ted!
M20 Trifid Nebula - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes from CAS dark site
M27 Dumb-bell Nebula - Celestron 8" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 30 minutes - Very excellent photo by Ted!
M27 Dumb-bell Nebula - Meade 10" 15 minutes
M36 Open Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus 10 minutes
M37 Open Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus 10 minutes
M38 Open Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus 10 minutes
M42 Orion Nebula - Meade10" prime focus, Fuji 800, 15 minutes, Meade 10" f/6.3 reducer , Fuji 1600, 5 minutes
M42 Nebula area - red enhanced Celestron 8" version by Ted!
M42 Orion Nebula - Celestron 14" with focal reducer - 10 minutes
M45 Open Cluster with Venus near by - 200mm - 30 seconds
M51 Spiral Galaxy - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 35 minutes - Color enhanced version
M56 Globular Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 20 minutes
M57 Smoke Ring Nebula in Lyra - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes, B&W Version
M66 Spiral Galaxy - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 35 minutes
M71 Globular Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes
M81/M82 Irr. Galaxy - Celestron 8" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 45 minutes - by Ted!
M84/M86/NGC 4388 - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 30 minutes - B & W
M92 Globular Cluster - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 800, 20 minutes (400 x 400)
NGC 4435 and NGC 4438 - Meade 10" prime focus, Kodak 1000, 15 minutes - B& W
Double Cluster in Persius - Meade 10" f/6.3 reducer, Fuji 800, 5 minutes

One item of note regarding the photographs above. Kodak and Fuji film used were taken to a 1 hour photo lab. The automatic developer does not know how to balance astrophoto colors, consequently many of these were scanned in black and white to remove that ugly green background. Of course, many of these backgrounds are the result of sky fogging caused by too much exposure while sitting inside the Central Ohio light bubble!

Since the advent of electronic cameras and imaging systems we have begun to experiment and are delighted to report that most work quite well inside the ugly city lights. Used in conjunction with a computer assisted mount and computer guiding, the electronic camera is an amazing tool for the city bound astronomer / photographer.

Recommended Reading
Do you have an 8" telescope?

The 20-CM Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope : A Practical Observing Guide
by Peter Manly - $19.95 (click on picture for discounted price)
Learn how to use and take pictures with an 8" telescope. This practical guide will allow you to get the most out of your telescope.

Here is what we used to create the images:

Telescopes -

Questar 3.5"
Meade ETX
Celestron Nexstar 5" SCT
Celestron 8" Polaris SCT
Meade 10" LX SCT
Celestron 14" SCT (CAS Club scope at Perkins Observatory)

Cameras -

Meade LPI (Lunar Planetary Imager) CCD

Standard SLR with interchangeable lens, manual bulb setting.
Taurus Camera and Off axis guider
CCD- Sirius CWIP-12a.
Cookbook CCD with tri-color wheel (built by Ted)