Current mood:	happy
Current music:	Pink Floyd - "Brain Damage"

Astrophotography Pics
Hey, kids! Check out my crappy batch of astrophotography pics! LOL, hope the other roll came out better. :( All pics were taken on the night of October 11, 2003, with a Minolta X-700 SLR camera, using Fuji ISO 100 film. These pics range up to 2 MB in size, so be aware if you have a slow connection!

The moon, 1 second exposure, Vivitar 76-205mm lens zoom (set to 205mm), x2 multiplier (so 410mm equiv, or x8 magnification), f/5.8, 1 second exposure. Next time, I shorten the aperture even more, and run a faster shutter speed.

Get yer ass to Mars! Took this at 12:37 A, with a 50mm, f/2 lens, on a 30 minute exposure. Not sure where the pinkish tint came from - it's not on the print. Whatever scanning software they used basically sucked, I guess. OK, the bright streak is Mars. Moving towards the upper right, the next streak is, I think 45 Aquarii, a red giant. To the upper right of that would be 42 Aquarii, another red giant. To the upper left of Mars, almost directly above, is 50 Aquarii, yet another red giant. To the left and slightly below would be 56 Aquarii, a nice main sequence star, which'd make it similar to our own Sun. The most likely candidate for one of the two streaks above 50 Aquarii is HIP110786, another main sequence star. I haven't the faintest clue which the other would be, as the software I'm using doesn't really have anything listed it could be. I think they're too far afield to be Sigma Aquarii, a main sequence star that's part of a multiple-star system (presumably a binary). The brightest trail ahead of Mars, I believe, is 39 Aquarii, another main sequence star. Still working on identifying the others, and I'll prolly have to have this print blown up, or rescanned, to make better IDs.

Last, but not least, is another Mars trail, though this one's badly affected by light pollution. I can clearly ID Mars (it's closest to the tree branch I used for framing), but the others are too faint in this pic to be sure. This was a 20 minute exposure with my 50mm f/2 lens, taken around 1 AM.