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The photographs on this page have been taken by
Johathan Putsman
For an earlier series - click here
An image showing the change in appearance of Saturn over the
past 10 months. The main reason for the difference is Saturn's axial
tilt of 26.7 degrees which means we get a different view of the planet
each year. The rings will be completely edge-on in 2009. This has a
noticeable effect on the brightness of the planet ranging from around
magnitude -0.5 to +0.5. As usual for the planetary images, they were
processed in Registax. (About 1200 images were stacked for each image).
An image of M82, known as the Cigar Galaxy, a star-burst galaxy
in Ursa Major. The gravitational interaction with nearby M81 has
triggered an increase in star formation. The image comprises 30
two-minute exposures - 10 each through red, green and blue filters - an
hour in total.
Images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and combined and processed in GIMP.
Images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and combined and processed in GIMP.
A close-up of the trapezium area of M42. The Orion Nebula is a
stellar nursery - the birthplace for new stars. This image is a
'quickie' (relatively speaking) - 10 x 30-second exposures for each of Red,
Green, Blue and 5 x 60-second exposures for luminance data. Images stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and combined and processed in GIMP.
Image of M1 - the Crab Nebula
taken last night. This time it's a colour image and comprises a total of
75 minute exposure: 3 x 5mins each of Red, Green and Blue and 6 x 5mins luminance (through a CLS light pollution filter).
75 minute exposure: 3 x 5mins each of Red, Green and Blue and 6 x 5mins luminance (through a CLS light pollution filter).
Click on any of the three images above to see a larger version
Images taken on 5th January 2008
The Horsehead nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation of Orion, just below Alnitak. A total of 40 minutes using the Atik 16ic camera and an Astronomik CLS light-pollution filter, through my Meade 6" Schmidt Newtonian.
It took a little bit of work to get it onto the small CCD chip of the camera as this is not obviously visible with the naked eye from my site, with my equipment.
It took a little bit of work to get it onto the small CCD chip of the camera as this is not obviously visible with the naked eye from my site, with my equipment.
Messier 1 - the Crab Nebula. This supernova remnant is showing some nice detail. Same equipment as above, a total of 36 minutes of exposure time.
Both of the above images would really benefit from being colour not monochrome!
Mars is pretty small this year (currently only about 15 arc-seconds in diameter) and I don't really have the right equipment to image it very well.
This little image compares what I got with a Toucam (~700 frames, stacked in Registax) versus an image from Starry Night.
I think I rotated my image correctly to match the orientation of the Starry Night image!
Click on any of the above images to see a larger version