# 69 | Light Up The Night
A trick used by astrophotographers sometimes to add to the beauty of their photographs is to illuminate the foreground. Sometimes the Moon can provide the desired illumination; other times a flashlight will suffice.
Shaun Lowe, using a Kodak DX3900 digital camera, took three 16-second exposures at the 400-speed setting of the Big Dipper from Fall River, Nova Scotia. Then, while lighting the trees with a flashlight, he took a 6-second shot at the 100-speed.
Shaun then took the images and combined them using Photoshop.
# 68 | Seven Bashful Sisters
Sometimes the most simple type of photograph can be one of the most beautiful. Simply placing a camera on a tripod and letting the stars trail by can result in a stunning shot like this photo taken by Brett Zimmerman.
Brett placed his camera, equipped with a 70-210mm lens at f4 zoomed all the way in, on a tripod and took a 15 minute exposure of the Pleiades using Fuji Superia X-tra 400 film.
Also known as the Seven Sisters, Brett appropriately titled his shot as the Seven Sisters disappear behind some trees and out of view of the camera.
# 67 | Moon Over Nunavut
Although many Canadians find the days of Winter long and dark, imagine what it must be like for those that live in the extreme northern parts of the country.
John MacDonald of Igloolik, Nunavut, took this shot of the rising Moon and two Inuit Inuksuks on December 21, 2002. Because of it's extreme northern latitude, the Sun does not even rise over Igloolik at the time of year that this photo was taken.
John used an Olympus C4040Z digital camera for his shot.
# 66 | M42---The Orion Nebula
The Orion Nebula appears to be a star to most who cast a casual gaze upwards, but when seen through a telescope, it becomes magnificent object that observers come back to time and time again.
M42 is found in the constellation Orion, seen rising in the south-east soon after dark. Below the three belt stars of Orion, three more stars constitute his sword. The middle "star" of his sword is the nebula, a stellar nursery located 1,400 light-years away. The nebula is illuminated by four stars called the Trapezium, aptly named due to their alignment, all which should be seen even in a small telescope.
Paul Zelichowski, from his observatory in Tilverton, ON, took this composite ccd image of the Orion Nebula with an f4.5 10" reflector and a f5.4 Televue 101 refractor. Paul combined his images in RegiStar and enhanced them with Photoshop.
# 65 | The Pleiades
The Pleiades is an easily recognized star cluster currently found high in the south-east at about 8:00pm. Looking like a minature version of the Big Dipper, many mistakenly refer to it as the Little Dipper.
Known to amateur astronomers as M45 and nicknamed "The Seven Sisters", the Pleiades is a small open cluster of stars thought to number about 100 and is at a distance of 380 light years away from us. The stars light up surrounding nebula and account for the beautiful blue colours in this photograph.
John Mirtle used a homemade 8" reflector and manually guided his scope for two 70-minute exposures with an Olympus OM1 camera using Fuji SG800 film from near Cluney, Alberta. John then stacked the two images with Registar.
# 64 | All Ages Astrophotography
Catching an aurora on film, or with today's digital cameras, is perhaps the easiest type of shot to take. All that is needed is a suitable camera, a tripod and fast film. Anyone with an interest in astrophotography should begin with on-tripod shots.
See the SkyNews Aurora Watch for instructions on how to take your own aurora photograph.
Fifteen year-old Jen Tigner of Kanata, Ontario, took this aurora photo in December, 2002. Jenn used a Canon PowerShot A40 digital camera set at f2.8 and a 15 second exposure for her shot.
# 63 | Jupiter and a Shadow Transit
On January 1, 2003, from his observatory in Saint Félicien, Québec, Claude Boivin used his Celestron 11" SCT to capture this composite shot of Jupiter, Io, Io's shadow and the Great Red Spot.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, can be found rising in the east soon after dark. When observing with binoculars, one can watch the movement of the four largest moons of Jupiter change nightly.
Observing with a telescope allows even more to be seen. The four largest moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede) often cast a shadow upon the face of the planet (called a shadow transit) as they revolve around Jupiter. The month of January has some nights of double shadow transits which will be spectacular events.
Claude used a Quickcam Pro 3000 and a 2.5x barlow and then processed and stacked the 500-800 images he took that night with Iris and Registax.
# 62 | Cassiopeia
The distinctive "W" shaped constellation Cassiopeia can be found near the zenith soon after dark and also can be used as a guide to help find deep sky treasures such as the Andromeda Galaxy ( also known as M31) or the Double Cluster in Perseus.
Stuart Heggie of Flesherton, Ontario, piggybacked his Nikon F2 camera on his 10" SCT which he houses in a permanent backyard observatory. Stuart used Kodak Supra 400, a 105mm Nikkor lens at f2.5 and took a 15 minute exposure.
# 61 | Christmas Telescope
Many amateur astronomers will awake on Christmas morning hoping to find some astro goodies under their tree. But what if your Christmas tree is your telescope?
Dave Raeburn of Nova Scotia, got into the festive mood by decorating his 10" SkyWatcher dobsonian telescope for the holiday season.
# 60 | Solar Eclipse
Eclipse chasers from around the world recently descended upon Africa and Australia to see the December 4, 2002 total solar eclipse.
Steve Barnes travelled to Ceduna, Australia to witness the spectacular event. Steve took this photo, a composite of three shots (1/1000 of a second, 1/125 of a second and 1 second exposures), through a Tele Vue 101mm f5.4 refractor using Fuji Provia 100F slide film.