Astrophotography
Until the advent of CCD's, conventional film was the main medium used by amateurs to record astronomical objects . I started astronomical photography about 1970 with black & white films such as Tri-X, push processed and printed on high contrast paper to reveal as much detail as possible. I owe most of my thanks to former LAS member Bob Halliday who promoted great interest in astrophotography within the Liverpool Society. Bob spent many hours experimenting with film and developers to get the best results, one of his best series of photographs was of comet Bennett in 1970 - a great comet like those of recent times.
Although I started in 1970, most of my best photographs were taken from the mid 1980's onwards on slide film. Around 1980 I bought an ex arial photography lens, a 178mm f2.5 Aero Ektar lens. I mounted this to fit a 35mm camera body and guided it on a Vixen Polaris mount with either a 6" f6, or 4" f4.5 reflector. This system worked very well and travelled to the excellent skies over mount Teide in Tenerife in April 1986 for the apparition of Halley's comet
The images below are a selection taken with the 178mm, my 14" reflector or a 55mm f2 'standard' lens on films such as hypered Tech Pan 2415 (also see this page) and Scotch Chrome 1000 slide film, which was a good film for it's day despite giving a greenish background. Images were scanned from prints by myself or directly from the negatives by Tony Williams. The full sized images can be opened by clicking on the thumbnails, some of the full sized images are rather large in order to preserve quality, but most of the images shown below are typically 150Kb. For best results view the images at about 50% size on the screen to lessen the effects of film grain.
M51 taken from Liverpool on hypered technical pan
film and a 40 minute exposure. A sodium rejection filter was used. This image was
taken with the galaxy near the zenith on a transparent night with good seeing resulting in
sharp details.
The famous Horsehead nebula in Orion, visible in
photographs just below zeta Orionis, the lower left star in the belt. The nebula comprises
the dark dust and gas of the horses head pushing into and overlaying the bright hydrogen
emmision nebula. This image was taken on hypered technical pan film using a Wratten #29
filter to block light pollution and enhance the red hydogen emission nebula. The exposure
was 40 minutes.
One of my favourite open clusters is NGC 7789 in
Cassiopeia. Comprising 11th to 18th mag stars according to Burnhams Celestial Handbook,
the cluster is easily seen in binoculars on a clear dark night and comes to life in a
small telescope with a low power.
This image was taken on hypered TP2415 film and a 15 minute exposure.
The eastern portion of the veil nebula in Cygnus.
One of the longest exposures taken with the 14" at 55 minutes, this image records
many fine filamentary details in this supernova remnant. Widely regarded as difficult to
see visually, I have seen it frequently in 10x50 binoculars from dark sites - you just
have to know where to look and it pops out! Hypered TP2415 and the Lumicon H-Alpha pass filter were used to combat the severe light
pollution and enhance the hydrogen emission details.
Taken with the 178mm f2.5 Aero Ektar lens
Halley's comet. This has to be one of my favourite
photographs! Taken from Tenerife on 15th April 1986 with the 178mm f2.5 Aero Ektar lens, a
5.5 minute exposure on Tri-X film.
The frame includes Centaurus A (NGC 5128) to the lower left of the comet and Omega
Centauri at bottom left. Halley did not sport it's best tail at this time but a fanned
dust tail and straight gas tail can be seen in this image. The seeing was better than 1
arc sec during the night this was taken.
Little
known IC1396 is a large red emission nebula in Cepheus near the star mu Cephei
(lower right of the nebula in this image) IC 1396 shows up as a large red patch
on many colourslide images. This image was taken from fellow LAS member Andrew
Bate's farm in the Cheshire countryside with a 30 minute exposure, a Lumicon
H-alpha pass filter and hypered TP2415 film.
The famous North American nebula in Cygnus, NGC 7000
and the 'Pelican Nebula' IC5067-70 to the west. This image was taken from COAA in 1992 on hypered tech pan 2415 film. A
deep red Lumicon H-Alpha Pass filter was used to enhance the red emission nebulosity. The
exposure was 20 minutes.
Messier 8 and M20 in Sagittarius. This image was
taken from Tenerife during the Halley's comet trip in 1986. A 7 minute exposure at f2.5
using Scotch 1000 slide film. The greenish background colour has not been corrected.
Taken with the 6" f6 reflector
The famous double cluster in Perseus was imaged here
from the dark skies of North Wales on Ektar 1000 print film and a 5 minute exposure.
Taken with a 55mm f2 'standard' lens
The Sagittarius region of the Milky Way taken from
Tenerife on Scotch 1000 slide film. A 5 minute exposure at f2
The Scorpius region of the Milky Way taken from
Tenerife on Scotch 1000 slide film. Also a 5 minute exposure at f2