Images taken with Nikon D7500

The image on the right is a star field showing a quasar (the nucleus of a very remote galaxy). The bottom-left inset shows my camera and telephoto lens on a star tracker (the white box). The top-left inset shows where I pointed the camera in the constellation of Draco. The top-right inset shows a blow-up of the centre region of the image. The quasar is the tiny grey dot identified by the two tick marks.	Quasar at a distance of 25 billion light-years 256 x 30s	The light from the quasar travelled for over 12 billion years on its way to the camera. During that time the Universe has expanded and so the quasar is now about 25 billion light-years away. The image was taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR and a 300mm f/4 lens mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.
The montage on the right comprises three images taken during the BASoc Star Party of 2019. All the images were taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR and a 300mm f/4 lens mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Montage of images taken during BASoc Star Party	M45 Pleiades Cluster 14 x 60s C33 + C34 Veil Nebula 33 x 60s M31 Andromeda Galaxy 32 x 60s
The image on the right is the centre of the Milky Way from Aquila (top left) to Scorpius (right). Jupiter is the bright 'star' above right of centre. Saturn is near the left edge. It was taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR and a 35mm lens set at f/4 and mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Milky Way from Aquila to Scorpius 6 x 10 x 120s	The image is a mosaic of 6 images, where each image was created by stacking (adding together) 10 individual exposures, each of which was 120s long.
The image on the right is the centre of the Milky Way from Sagittarius (left) to Scorpius (right). Jupiter is the bright 'star' above right of centre. Saturn is near the left edge. It was taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR and a 35mm lens set at f/4 and mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Milky Way from Sagittarius to Scorpius 4 x 10 x 120s	The image is a mosaic of 4 images, where each image was created by stacking (adding together) 10 individual exposures, each of which was 120s long.
The image on the right shows Antares (the brightest star in the constellation of Scorpius) and the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex. This star-forming region is one of the closest to us at a distance of about 400 light-years. It was taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR and a 135mm f/2 lens mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Antares and Rho Ophiuchi 60 x 120s	The image is the result of stacking (adding together) 60 individual exposures each of which was 120s long. Click here for a labelled image.

Images taken with Nikon D7100

The image on the right is the centre of the Milky Way from Scutum (top) to Sagittarius (bottom). It was taken with a Nikon D7100 DSLR and a 85mm lens set at f/2 and mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Milky Way through Scutum and Sagittarius 4 x 10 x 120s	The image is a mosaic of 4 images, where each image was created by stacking (adding together) 10 individual exposures, each of which was 120s long. Click here for a labelled image.
The image on the right is the Milky Way from Cygnus (top left) to Scorpius (bottom right). It was taken with a Nikon D7100 DSLR and a 10-20mm lens set at 10mm and f/5.6 and mounted on an iOptron SkyTracker.	Milky Way from Cygnus to Scorpius 6 x 240s	The image was created by stacking (adding together) 6 individual exposures, each of which was 240s long. Click here for a labelled image.

Images taken with Nikon D200 + 35 mm f/1.8 wide-angle lens

The image on the right was taken with the K2 star tracker that I designed and built to allow long exposure images to be taken without the stars trailing due to the rotation of the Earth.

Milky Way through Scutum and Scorpius 20 x 60s

The image was created by stacking (adding together) 20 individual exposures, each of which was 60s long. Stacking reduces the noise levels in the images and so allows fainter detail to be captured.

Images taken with Nikon D70/D200 + Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 telephoto lens

M31 Andromeda Galaxy 2 x 600s	M45 Pleiades star cluster 3 x 300s	M8 Lagoon + M20 Trifid Nebulae 300s
C63 Helix Nebula 20 x 120s	NGC7000 North America Nebula 20 x 120s	Total Eclipse of the Sun 5 images of various exposures ( more images here )
	Comparison of Raw/Stacked/Processed images

Images taken with Nikon D200 + Sigma 100-300 mm f/4 telephoto lens

Markarian's Chain and other galaxies Virgo and Coma Berenices 10 x 120s

Markarian's Chain and other galaxies Negative image makes it easier to differentiate galaxies (fuzzy edges) from stars (sharper)

Markarian's Chain and other galaxies Negative image with galaxies labelled with Messier (M) numbers or NGC numbers

Images taken with Nikon D70 through Meade LX200 telescope

M42 Orion Nebula LX200 prime focus mosaic of 4 x 300s

Moon (11 day) LX200 prime focus mosaic 1/250s

Five moons of Saturn LX200 prime focus 8s ( click here for labelled image )

Other images taken through Meade LX200 telescope

M1 Crab Nebula LX200 with DSI imager 45 x 15s	M51 Whirlpool Galaxy LX200 with DSI imager 60 x 15s	C23 Spiral Galaxy LX200 with DSI imager 66 x 30s
Saturn LX200 with 26mm eyepiece Canon XM2 camcorder Subset of 8075 x 1/25s exposures f/38

Specification of Meade LX200 telescope Mirror diameter = 250 mm Focal length = 2500 mm Focal ratio = f/10 See www.meadeuk.com for more details

Specification of Nikon D70 digital camera CCD chip resolution = 3000 x 2000 Pixel size = 8 x 8 microns Chip size = 24 x 16 mm See imaging.nikon.com for more details