Moonscape - More Pictures Added

[kel]

 

[swimaniac]

Its quite amazing you can capture saturn in Singapore and such closeup of the moon.  I thought its not possible.    

Actually you can see many objects in Singapore and you do not need very dark locations. The pictures I took were from the carpark at my place next to the PIE.

Of course a telescope is essential to get these shots. Photo below is the group of sky watchers with our equipment.



The scopes from left are 8" newtonian, 4" APO refractor, 5" APO refractor and my 8" SCT.

Below is the link to the local astro community. You can see other much better photographs in there including Deep Sky Objects like galaxies, nebulas and clusters.
http://www.singastro.org/index.php

[UKay]

thank you very much for sharing... its amazing how something like freaking light years away(not literally) can be shot til its this size with a setup at home n not form some multimilion dollar telescope ontop of a hill... keep up the good work... can u shoot the sun or venus with the setup u have?

[swimaniac]

Yes, one can shoot the sun but will need either a special solar telescope or you can use a solar filter to cover the front of the lens. As for Venus, you will be hard pressed to see any features as its brightness is overwhelming. Venus is like the moon, it has phases.

[UKay]

thanks.... from you answer, can i assume that its easier to shoot the planets south of the earth.. rather than those that are nearer to the sun? or is it just the same.. just that you need to use different filters and equipment?

[swimaniac]

The inner planets like venus and mercury are usually very bright and most of the time mercury is very near the sun. At least venus can be seen at night but mercury due to its proximity to the sun can only be seen early morning or late evening(sunrise and sunset) and when the sun is up it may be too bright to make it out. You don't need special filters if you don't look directly into the sun.

The outer planets (mars, jupiter, saturn etc) are more interesting but again the far planets are difficult to find due to its distance and dimness. Uranus, neptune are blue in colour (I assume because of the cold - frozen nitrogen and other gases. Pluto is no longer classified as a planet) One can actually download free planetarium software from the internet which shows you the different constellations, planets and major stars at different times of the year - real time. One such software is "Stellarium". After downloading, you just key in your GPS position and it will do the rest.