Guy Walton

Website archive 1995-2013

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 Guy is an active observer and a talented builder of Dobsonian telescopes.  Guy is also a dedicated volunteer for public viewing nights at the Centre of the Universe.  He is an accomplished astrophotographer, using his Nikon D50 & D80 dSLRs, Sony DSC-S85 digital camera, and more recently an Orion SSPro CCD camera. He makes use of some of his many telescopes for photography. For further info, browse Guy's ASTROTEL website.

For current images, please refer to Guys Zenfolio Online Gallery (see above slideshow)

Please note: the page below contains an archive of Guy's images dated from 2005 through mid-2007.

 

Venus-Saturn Conjunction - June 30, 2007

This was taken from the DAO
Telescope: Orion 100 ED, f9 refractor on an HEQ5 mount
Camera: Nikon D80
Moon-Venus  Conjunction - May 19, 2007

This was taken from where I live on Mt Tolmie around 20:25 tonight.
Telescope: Antares 102mm, f5
Camera: Nikon D50 modified, 1/200, ISO 200.

Comet McNaught C2006 P1 - Jan 11, 2007

Here are two images of Comet McNaught taken from Mount Tolmie. The first is a combination of six images in Images Plus and the second is one image. All images were exposed at 1/5 th second at ISO 250 with my new Nikon D80 and a Nikkor 70-300mm lens at full telephoto.

Burrr!!!!! Was it ever cold up there!

M42 - Orion Nebula & Running Man Nebula - Dec 28, 2006

Telescope: Orion 100mm. f9 ED on an HEQ5 Mount.
Camera: Nikon D50 Modified using ImagesPlus to control the camera.
Exposure: 20 minutes total time at ISO 800.
Processing: ImagesPlus, Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja

Comet C/2006 M4 Swan & M33 - Oct 29, 2006

Here are my images from last night at the Old 16" Site at the DAO.
Camera: Nikon D50, modified with removal of the IR filter and replaced with clear glass.
Telescope: Orion 100, f9 ED Apo Refractor on SkyWatcher HEQ5 mount.
Processing: ImagesPlus, PhotoShop CS2 and Noise Ninja.
Exposures:
Comet Swan: ISO 800, 44 Light Frames and 18 Dark Frames.
M 33: ISO 1600, 30 Light Frames and 15 Dark Frames. Color balance was made in ImagesPlus.

Comet Swan - Oct 21, 2006

This image is taken through the fog that has been back lighted from the lights on the playing field just west of Observatory Hill. You can see a hint of a tail and some dust on my CCD sensor. This is the first light for my modified Nikon.
.
Camera: Nikon D50 modified and controlled with ImagesPlus on a laptop
Telescope: Orion 100ED, f9 on HEQ5 mount
Processing: 30 light frames and 10 dark frames in ImagesPlus, Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja.

M31, M32, M110 and NGC206 - Sept 23, 2006

I took this image last night at the old 16" site. I used my 102mm, f5 Antares achromatic refractor. Except for some chromatic aberration on a few of the bright stars, it is my best of the Andromeda Galaxy area.

Details
Telescope: Antares 102mm, f5 achromatic refractor
Mount: HEQ5
Camera: Nikon D50 at prime focus
Exposure: 61 Light Frames and 10 Dark Frames controlled by ImagesPlus on my laptop computer. All frames were exposed at 30 sec. at ISO 800.
Processing: ImagesPlus, Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja.

2006.09.23--M31CombineFilesExdAdd812_PS_filtered_BSmall.jpg
Your telescope may not be as big a limitation as all that. I have taken the liberty of using Astronomy tools to remove the purple halos and it does a pretty good job. (See lower image) John McDonald

NGC 7789, Open Cluster - Aug 31, 2006

Here is an Image I did last night at the Old 16" Site:

Subject: NGC 7789, Open Cluster in Cassiopeia
Camera: Nikon D50, 50 - 30 second Light Frame exposures, 15 Dark Frames at ISO1600 controlled and captured with Images Plus, processed with Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja.
Telescope: Orion 100, f9 ED Apo Refractor on HEQ5 mount.
M13

M27

M52/NGC7635

M52, NGC7635, M27, M13 - Aug 26, 2006

Last night we set up at the old 16" site. I used "ImagesPlus", that is installed on my laptop, for a controlling the camera and saving the images directly to the computer. This method is great because I can see if the camera is focussed and if I am getting the desired composition. One can program in the sequence of exposures and let the computer operate the camera. Here are some images from last night. I was having tracking problems with M13 which were probably due to some imbalance and had to discard may exposures.

Camera: Nikon D50 at ISO 1600
Telescope: Orion ED Apo. 100mm. f9 with my NEW William Optics micro focuser on a CEQ4 mount.
Images captured with ImagesPlus where digital development was performed and the rest of the processing accomplished with Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja.

M52/NGC7635 was a combination of 38 light frames and 15 darks.
M27 was a combination of 21 light frames and 10 darks.
M13 was a combination of 9 light frames and 10 dark frames.

M11, the Wild Duck Cluster - August 18/19, 2006

Here is an image I did of M11, the Wild Duck Cluster at Pearson College last Friday night August 18/19 /06.

Camera: Nikon D50, with NR on
Telescope: Orion 100mm, F9 ED Apo Refractor on EQ 4 mount
Processing of 11 exposures of 30 sec. at ISO 800 in Images Plus, PhotoShop CS2 and Noise Ninja.
NGC457 or the ET Cluster in Cassiopeia

NGC 869 and 884, the Double Cluster in Perseus

NGC457 or the ET Cluster in Cassiopeia - August 5, 2006 - A combination of 13, 30 second exposures at ISO 1600 with noise reduction on:

NGC 869 and 884, the Double Cluster in Perseus - August 5, 2006 - A combination of 13, 30 second exposures at ISO 1600 with noise reduction on.

Last night was great and for those that are scared of a nearly full moon, we had very good seeing conditions plus a nice warm evening [on Observatory Hill]. I used the information that John McDonald and Brian Robillard gave me for using my new polar alignment scope on my CGE mount. With that plus a little program called Polar Finder, I was able to achieve good alignment on my telescope and the tracking was the best yet. Here are the two objects I imaged last night using an Orion 100mm, f9 ED Apo Refractor and a Nikon D50, DSLR camera. Images Plus, Photoshop CS2 and Noise Ninja were used for handling the images.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy and M110 - July 15, 2006

Last night, I finally got my CEQ mount polar aligned so it tracked quite well. Here is another M31. The 30 sec. exposures were made with an Nikon D50 on an Orion 100mm, f9 ED refractor at ISO 1600. I manually picked out 11 images from 15 that had sharp star images and used Images Plus with 10 darks to calibrate, align and combine. The combined image was transferred to Photoshop CS2 where I played with exposure, gamma, contrast and brightness. I wanted to get the dust lanes to show up as much as possible. I then transferred the image to Noise Ninja where it reduced the noise and added a little sharpness. The camera framing cut off the star cloud to the extreme right. I have to learn (if there is) a technique to hold back the brightness of the galaxy's core and still show the detail in it's periphery.

M31 Andromeda Galaxy and M110 - June 23, 2006

I processed 11, 30 sec. exposures at ISO 800 and 10 Darks with DeepSky Imager. Adjusted stack with PhotoShop CS2 and Noise Ninja. If I can figure how to use Images Plus, I am sure the results will be better. Camera was Nikon D50 on an Orion 100mm, F9 ED Refractor at prime focus.

M13 Hercules Cluster - May 13, 2006 - I finally figured what I was doing wrong with freeware program DeepSkyStacker and now the images are registering correctly. Here are some results. M13 was taken last night at the DAO. The bright moon probably reduced the overall quality but for me, this is my third night out to do imaging and I am happy with the results.

- Orion 100mm, f9, ED refractor on EQ4 Mount
- Nikon D50 DSLR, 30 second exposures with NR on.
- Images stacked with DeepSkyStacker, processed with Photoshop 9, C2 and cleaned up with Noise Ninja.

Moon - May 7, 2006 - Here is an image of the Moon taken with a Nikon D50 at ISO 800 on my Orion 100mm, f9 ED refractor.
Comet 73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann - May 2, 2006 - Image taken at Cattle Point using my Orion 100 f/9 ED refractor on EQ4 mount with a Nikon D50 at 30 seconds with NR on.  I stacked 3 images using a freeware program called Deep Sky Stacker.
July 17, 2005 - Antares Grazes the Moon - Tonight, I went up on Mt. Tolmie and set up by 8:15 PM. This photo was taken at about 8:50 PM. I was using my Orion ED 100 mm F9 refractor with 17mm Nagler Type 4 eyepiece and a Sony DSC-S85 digital camera mounted a-focally on the eyepiece.

My earlier photos using the ScopeTronix MaxView DSLR camera adapter did not show up Antares. When I started observing at about 8:15 I saw Antares clearly visible and not hidden by the moon and as things progressed it never was blocked by the moon as I thought it was going to. David Lee's plot of the path is much what I saw. I have earlier and later photos but have not done much with them yet and did not record the times of their exposures.

July 17, 2005 - Mt. Baker from Mt. Tolmie -  Here is a photo of Mount Baker from where I was for the Antares graze.
Lunar X Feature - photo by Guy Walton Feb 15, 2005 -The Lunar X Feature - This is the 1st time I used my digital camera on a telescope. Telescope is my new Orion 100mm ED. The 'X' is there too.
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Last updated: January 29, 2014

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