Astronomy Pictures

One of the great things about living here in the mountains is the dark skies for Astronomy. Here are a few screen grabs that I've taken in the past few year. These were taken using a Mallincam Extreme video camera that is specifically created for astronomy. The images are shown on a TV monitor and can also be captured on a computer, these are the images from the computer and while impressive, not nearly as good as what you see on the TV monitor.

Most times when I'm using the camera, I also broadcast the images on the NightskiesNetwork where on a given night, you may have multiple people showing their live images from around the world. You can use chat windows to talk with each other and have had some really interesting conversations. Many times, viewers without telescopes or cameras will ask you to move to an object they've wanted to see. Here's a link:

NightskiesNetwork

Dumbbell Nebula

Orion Nebula

Ring Nebula

Andromeda Galaxy

Triangulum Galaxy

Sculptor Galaxy

Flame & Horsehead Nebulas

 This last image is from a couple of years ago when the Asteroid YU255 was visible. Not overly impressive to look at, the story behind the image is interesting. This is a capture from a broadcast on NightskiesNetwork where at one point, over 175 people were watching the broadcast. There were people from North America, Europe, and Australia watching. I was getting coordinates on where the asteroid would be visible in a few minutes time from someone in Canada, I'd enter the data in my telescope mount, then set the camera to record and see what we got. I was able to capture short shots of the asteroid as it moved quickly through the field of view a number of times and the "applause" on the chat channel would break out when a capture appeared that had caught the asteroid. Really amazing how the technology has changed in the last 10 years for home astronomy.

YU255 Asteroid