Welcome to

"dj.f - h.t.p" = "jeff-hotep": Geoff is Satisfied

jeffhotep.home.comcast.net! Geoff's Gallery of (mostly) WebCam Astrophotos

Made with the Philips Vesta 675K, ToUcam 740K, and SPC 900 NC WebCams,
Canon PowerShot A70, A95, and S2IS digital cameras,
Meade Deep-Sky Imager (DSI) CCD camera, and Orion "StarShoot" DSI CCD camera.
All images, except where otherwise noted, are © Geoff Chester

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Cylindrical projection map of Jupiter,  created with my Philips SPC 900 NC webcam images made between 2007 July 7 and July 11, using Grischa Hahn's WinJupOS planetary ephemeris software.	Cylindrical projection map of Mars, created with my Philips SPC900 NC webcam images made between 2007 December 7 and 2008 February 15, using Grischa Hahn's WinJupOS planetary ephemeris software.

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These images owe their existence to a number of individuals and the huge amounts of time that they have devoted to providing high-quality FREE software for creating amazing digital astropix. I dedicate my images to them:

Cor Berrevoets, who has now lived through four successive iterations of RegiStax, the image-stacking utility that wrings the most amazing detail out of my "raw" images. We saw over 120 Beta versions of the new release 4.0 before Cor felt comfortable releasing it to the world. That's dedication!

Axel Canicio, who has created an extremely powerful and feature-filled image-capture progran, AstroSnap, wich is designed to work specifically with webcams and other streaming video devices. I am still discovering the features he's built into this package!

Peter Katreniak, whose K3CCDTools software combines many of the features of the above two programs and allows the creation of registered time-lapse animations...

And last, but not least, to all those who have contributed to the creation of The GIMP, an evolving, open-source program that is rapidly closing in on all the functionality of PhotoShp Elements (and has a few extra goodies as well)...

A Boy and His Toy...
Celestar-8 SCT, with WebCam attached to Barlow Lens.
Note the plethora of "snakes". These can be quite hazardous in the dark...

Photo by L.A. Chester

The Latest & Greatest:
Lunar Eclipse, 2008 February 21

Total Lunar Eclipse, 2008 FEB 21, 03:46 UT Imaged by Geoff Chester with an Anteres Sentinel 80mm f/6 refractor and Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera, 2 second exposure at ISO 100	Moon at Mid-Eclipse, with Saturn and Regulus, 2008 FEB 21, 03:22 UT Imaged by Geoff Chester with a Canon PowerShot S2IS digital camera, 5.5x optical zoom, 2.5 second exposure, f/4, ISO 50

Mars is back!

Mars, 2008 JAN 29, 00:36 UT Imaged with the U.S. Naval Observatory's 30.5-cm (12-inch) f/15 Clark/Saegmüller refractor, 2X Barlow lens, and Philips SPC900 NC webcam.

Mars, 2007 DEC 15, 03:41 UT Imaged with a Celestar-8 20cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt- Cassegrain telescope, Orion "Shorty Plus" 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips SPC 900NC webcam	Mars, 2007 DEC 18, 04:34 UT Imaged with the USNO's 12-inch (30.5cm) f/15 Clark/Saegmüller refractor, TeleVue 2X "Big Barlow" lens, and a Philips SPC 900NC webcam

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Surprise!  Just when you think you've seen it all, something happens to get your attention in a "big way"!
Up until October 23 Comet 17P/Holmes was just another feeble 17th magnitude fuzzball.

Then  something extraordinary happenned.  In literlally hours it burst up to 2nd magnitude.  
Of course this happenned right at the beginning of a lengthy rain storm, so I didn't get my first look at it until the evening of October 27.  
But what a sight!  It's easily visible in binoculars, and I could see it with the naked eye despite the nearly full Moon from my front yard in the wee hours of the 28th.

Now, as December opens, it's still a 3rd magnitude object, but it is latger then the apparent diameter of the Moon!

My, how we've grown! Comet 17P/Holmes, imaged to the same scale, 2007 OCT 28, 30, & NOV 24 80mm f/6 Antares Sentinel refractor, Orion StarShoot Deep Space Color Imager CCD.

Comet 17P/Holmes, 2007 OCT 28, 05:08 UT Imaged from Alexantria, VA USA with an 80mm f/6 Antares Sentinel refractor and an Orion StarShoot Deep Sky Color CCD camera. 60 4-second exposures, captured and procesed with MaxIm DL, post-processing with Photoshop Elements 4.0.	Comet 17P/Holmes, 2007 OCT 30, 03:45 UT Imaged from the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washingto, DC, USA with an 80mm f/6 Antares Sentinel refractor and an Orion StarShoot Deep Sky Color CCD camera. 60 5-second exposures, captured and procesed with MaxIm DL, post-processing with Photoshop Elements 4.0.

Planting Freedom Under the Harvest Moon, 2007 September 27 1/4-second f/3.5 exposure with hand-held Canon PowerShot S2IS digital camera, manual mode, ISO 200, 2.5X optical zoom. Imaged at the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, Arlington, VA by Geoff Chester. Thanks to Kevin Dohmen for the image processing.

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It's been a busy spring and summer of 2007.  Saturn and Jupiter have received most of my webcam attention, and some of the newer images will be posted here shortly.  However, there were still some nice "scenic" moments to capture as well.  The recent conjunction between Venus and Saturn is a case in point, as well as the nice passage of Mars between the Pleiades & Hyades, which I saw from our summer rental on Fishers Island.   I've also obtained a new Orion "StarShoot" Deep-Sky Imager CCD camera, and have gotten some good early results from my front yard in Alexandria.

Messier 27, the Dumbell Nebula, imaged on 2007 September 3, 04:15 UT with a Synta 80-mm f/5 "Short Tube" refractor and Orion StarShoot DSI CCD camera from Alexandria, VA.	Messier 57, the Ring Nebula, imaged on 2007 September 3, 03:20 UT with a Synta 80-mm f/5 "Short Tube" refractor and Orion StarShoot DSI CCD camera from Alexandria, VA.

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Mars, with the Pleiades and the Hyades star clusters, 2007 August 12, 08:25 UT 10-second f/4 exposure with tripod-mounted Canon PowerShot S2IS digital camera, manual mode, ISO 200, 2.5X optical zoom. Imaged from Fishers Island, NY.

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Venus and Saturn over the USNO 12-inch dome, 2007 JUL 3, 01:37 UT Imaged with a Canon PowerShot S2IS digital camera, 2.5X optical zoom, 10 seconds @ f/4.5, ISO 50

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The late fall and winter of 2006 was notable for a lack of bright planets to observe and image.  Fortunately, the folks at Wallops Flight Center gave us a great sky show in December, an otherwise nondescript comet erupted to naked-eye brightness in January 2007, and the planets Mercury and Venus put on a great show in February

Venus, Mercury, and the U.S. Air Force Memorial, Arlington, Virginia 2007 February 7, 23:22 UTC Canon PowerShot S2IS, 2.5s, f/3.2, ISO 50

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Venus and Comet C/2006 P1 (McNaught) seen from Alaska Air flight 002, 2007 JAN 12, 00:05 UTC Hand-held 1/4-second f/4 exposure with Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera, manual mode, ISO 200, 2.0X zoom. Imaged from 41,000 feet somewhere over South Dakota.

"Minotaur Dawn" Launch of TacSat-2 on a Minotaur-1 from Wallops Flight Facility, 2006 DEC 16, 12:00 UT 1/40-second exposure with Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera, Auto Mode, no zoom. Imaged from George Washington Masonic Temple, Alexandria, VA. This image was chosen as the Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 21, 2006!

How I spent my summer vacation...
Another glorious summer vacation to Fishers Island was enjoyed by all this past August.  We had several nice evenings that allowed me to feed the Island's mosquito population.  I managed to record some decent images of a couple of summertime favorites.

Globular cluster Messier 22 in Sagittarius (left) and Planetary Nebula Messier 27 in Vulpecula Imaged on 2006 August 17 by Geoff Chester at Fishers Island, New York. 80mm f/5 Synta achromatic refractor & Meade DSI CCD color camera; Composite images made from "track & accumulate" stacks of 50 5.7s (M22) and 8s (M27) exposures.

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Summer is here!  It's been pretty gross, even for Washington!  At the end of June we had
torrential rains, with over a foot in three days.  This led to a bumper crop of Asian Tiger mosquitos,
which seem to enjoy lapping up DEET from all exposed skin day or night.  With the typical pattern of
afternoon thunderstorms we get haze, humidity, and turbulence.  Add the bugs and its even less
inviting to stand out in the yard to try and make images!  But I've managed one decent effort recently,
and hope to have some more good stuff from our annual summer trek to Fishers Island...

Old Jove, Old Glass

Jupiter, with Ganymede & Io, 2006 JUL 18, 01:08 UT Imaged with the U.S. Naval Observatory's 12-inch (30.5-cm) Clark/Saegmuller refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam

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The "Grazing Crater"

Lunar craters Messier & Messier A, Mare Fecunditatis region 2006 June 1, 00:53 UT Imaged with the USNO's 30.5-cm (12-inch) f/15 Clark-Saegmuller refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Of the two craters prominent in the center of this image, Messier is the one to the right.  Named for the famous French comet-hunter, this oblong (12 x 10 kilometer) feature is one of the most unusual on the entire lunar surface.  If you look at the "rays" extending from it, you can plainly see that the impacting body struck at a very shallow angle, and that the rim of the adjacent crater Messier A deflected some of the ejecta, some of which has piled up on the western wall of the latter feature.

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Spring is well upon us now, with twilight ending close to my bedtime.  Saturn is heeling over in the west and slipping behind
the neighbor's trees, but at the same time Jupiter is peeking out in the southeast.
The giant planet is awash with new and unexpected activity this year, with the biggest change coming in the form of the last
Long Enduring Oval "BA" in the South Temperate Belt.  For decades it has been whitish in color; now it's taken on a
decidedly reddish tinge, prompting many of us to give it the nickname of "Red, Jr."
The Giant Returns...

Jupiter, with Great Red Spot and "Red, Jr.", 2006 MAY 21, 02:57 UT Imaged with my Celestar-8 f/10 SCT, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.	Jupiter, with Great Red Spot and "Red Stripe", 2006 MAY 25, 03:18 UT Imaged with the USNO's 1895-vintage 30.5-cm (12-inch) f/15 Clark-Saegmuller refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.

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Saturn with the "Great Equatorial"

Saturn with six moons, 2006 MAR 19, 02:06 UT Imaged with the U.S. Naval Observatory's 66-cm (26-inch)  f/15 Alvan Clark "Great Equatorial" refractor and a Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera using a Scopetronics 40mm Plossl afocal eyepiece projection system.	Saturn "up close", 2006 MAR 26, 01:36 UT Imaged with the U.S. Naval Observatory's 66-cm (26-inch) f/15 Alvan Clark "Great Equatorial" refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.

"Hell" on the Moon!

"Hell" is on the Moon!  Desolation in Deslandres, 2006 MAR 8, 03:25 UT The large ruined crater Deslandres is located south of the famous trio of walled plains Arzachel, Alphonsus, and Ptolemaeus and the "Straight Wall".  The crater Hell is the deep shadow-filled crater within Deslandres at center right in the image.  Hell is 34km (20 miles) in diameter.  Running east (to the left) and south (to the top) of Hell is a shallow curving channel that ends by the ruined northern rim of the crater Lexell.  This feature has been dubbed "Charon's Canal" by Steve O'Maera in the March, 2006 issue of "Sky & Telescope", p. 64.  It's a fitting name for a channel that guides you to Hell! This image is a stack of about 150 frames selected from 650 1/33s exposures made with a Celestar-8 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, an Orion 2X "Shorty Plus" Batlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.  The frames were selected, multi-point aligned, stacked, and processed using RegiStax 3D Beta version 3.0.1.80.

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Three Lunar Craters

Saturn at Opposition

Saturn, showing the "Seeliger Opposition Effect"
2006 January 13, 03:22 UT and 2006 January 28, 03:15 UT

Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens,
5-cm extension tube, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.
Composite images made from 600 1/25-second exposures selected from 1500 frames,
processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.10.

Saturn reached "Opposition", the moment when it is opposite the Sun in the sky, on January 27 at 22:48 UT.  The image on the right was made about 4.5 hours later.  Notice anything "peculiar"?  I sure did through the eyepiece!  The planet's disc was much darker compared to the rings, and for a moment I thought my eyes were going bonkers on my brain.  However, the explanation lies in what's known as the "Seeliger Effect".  In a nutshell, at opposition, he phase angle of light falling on the ring particles becomes essentially zero, so the particles don't cast mutual shadows on each other along our line-of-sight.  The same effect makes a Full Moon appear dazzlingly bright.  In this case the rings effectively doubled in surface brightness, and I was lucky enough to snag it!

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Goodby Mars, Hello Saturn!
Yes, a new year is upon us, and after the hubbub of the holidays and a spate of generally cloudy weather, I managed to get out and enjoy a night of decent seeing and transparency.  Mars still has a few more potentially good nights for imaging, but Saturn will soon start taking up most of my time.

Mars, 2006 January 13, 03:22 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, 5-cm extension tube, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 466 1/25-second exposures selected from 1255 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.10.	Saturn, 2006 January 13, 03:52 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 450 1/25-second exposures selected from 1250 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.10.

Mars, 2005 November 26, 04:47 UTC Imaged with a Celestar-8 20-cm f/10 SCT, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens with 5-cm extensuin tube, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K 1200 1/25-second exposures made with AstroSnap Pro 2.1 400 frames selected, stacked, and processed with RegiStax 3. post-processed with The GIMP 2.3.5	Mars, 2005 December 10, 04:08 UTC Imaged with a Celestar-8 20-cm f/10 SCT, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens with 5-cm extensuin tube, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K 1800 1/25-second exposures made with AstroSnap Pro 2.1 500 frames selected, stacked, and processed with RegiStax 3. post-processed with The GIMP 2.3.5

Mars, 2005 November 3, 03:35, 03:58, and 04:42 UTC Imaged with USNO's 66-cm (26-inch) f/15 Alvan Clark & Sons "Great Equatorial" refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Three composite images made from 400 1/100-second exposures selected from 900 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.1 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0	Mars, 2005 November 3, 03:58 UTC Imaged with USNO's 66-cm (26-inch) f/15 Alvan Clark & Sons "Great Equatorial" refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 400 1/100-second exposures selected from 900 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.1 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Mars, 2005 November 1, 03:48 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5X TeleVue Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 350 1/33-second exposures selected from 900 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.1 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0. While I was setting up the telescope for this image a bright green light lit up the neighborhood, and the shadow of me and the telescope moved rapidly across the ground. It was the "Halloween Fireball" seen widely over the mid-Atlantic region at around 02:15 UT!

Mars, 2005 September 28, 10:32 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5X TeleVue Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 350 1/33-second exposures selected from 800 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.1 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.8.	Mars, 2005 October 18, 03:39 UTC Imaged with USNO's 30-cm Clark/Saegmuller refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. Composite image made from 225 1/50-second exposures selected from 600 frames, processed with RegiStax 3.1 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.8.

Well, this year was pretty sticky. There was only one clear night during the dark-of-the-Moon, and even that one was pretty hazy. However, I packed the DSI and my Synta 80mm f/5 "Short Tube" onto the back of my trusty Celestar-8, and between generous applications of DEET and the dew-gun managed to get some nice images of the local "wildlife"...

And what's an island without a nice Lagoon?

Fishers Island's "Night Birds", the Swan Nebula (Messier 17); the Wild Duck Cluster (Messier 11) and the Eagle Nebula (Messier 16) 2005 August 11 Imaged with an 80-mm f/5 Synta Short Tube Refractor and a Meade DSI RGB-CCD camera at Fishers Island, NY. Composite images made from 35 8-second exposures and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0.	The Lagoon Nebula, Messier 8 2005 August 11 Imaged with an 80-mm f/5 Synta Short Tube Refractor and a Meade DSI RGB-CCD camera at Fishers Island, NY. Composite image made from 35 8-second exposures and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0.

However, there's a nice supernova in M51, Deep Impact has brightened up Comet 9/P Tempel 1, and Jupiter is still lingering.

Jupiter, with Ganymede, Europa, & Io, 2005 June 26, 02:27 - 02:37 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite images made from 350 frames selected from sequences of 640 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0. Animation created with K3CCDTools 2.4 and The GIMP 2.2

Supernova 2005cs in Messier 51, 2005 July 3, 03:00 UT Imaged with a 14-cm (5.5-inch) f/3.64 Schmidt-Newtonian telescope and a Meade DSI CCD Camera. Composite image made from 145 frames, 5.6 second exposure times, digitally integrated and processed with K3CCDTools 2.4 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0.

The Great Hercules Cluster, Messier 13, 2005 June 18 Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, f/6.3 focal reducer, and a Meade DSI CCD astro-camera. Image made from "stack" of 50 two-second exposures digitally integrated and processed with K3CCDTools 2.4 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0 "Every passing hour brings the Solar System forty-three thousand miles closer to Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules -- and still there are some misfits who insist that there is no such thing as progress." Kurt Vonnegut - Sirens of Titan

Jupiter, 2005 June 17, 02:26 and 02:40 UT Imaged with the 12-inch (30.5-cm) f/15 1895 Clark/SaegmÜller refractor at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington, DC, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 350 frames selected from sequences of 650 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.7

Jupiter, with interesting formation of moons, 2005 June 15, 02:35 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Canon PowerShot A95 digital camera, using afocal projection through a ScopeTronix 40mm Plossl eyepiece. Composite image made from 25 frames digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0.

Jupiter, with Ganymede entering disc transit 2005 June 01, 01:57 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 350 frames selected from sequences of 640 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0	Jupiter, with Callisto, 2005 June 06, 02:21 Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5X TeleVue Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 375 frames selected from sequence of 660 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0.

Jupiter, with shadows of Europa & Io, 2005 May 27, 02:34 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 350 frames selected from sequences of 640 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Jupiter, with Europa & Io, 2005 May 27, 02:22 - 02:52 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite images made from 350 frames selected from sequences of 640 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0. Animation created with K3CCDTools 2.4 and The GIMP 2.2

Jupiter, 2005 May 19, 02:12 - 02:39 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite images made from 320 frames selected from sequences of 700 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0	Jupiter, with Ganymede & Io, 2005 May 18, 02:38 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 320 frames selected from a sequence of 700 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Copernicus, Stadius, & Eratosthenes region, 2005 May 18, 02:14 - 02:24 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from three 100-frame "stacks" from sequences of 500 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Sunrise on Clavius crater, 2005 May 18, 01:59 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Image made from 220-frame "stack" from sequence of 560 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0 Anybody see the "Monolith"?

Saturn, 2005 APR 17, 01:44 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5 X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 350 frames selected from a sequence of 900 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0	Jupiter, with Io & Callisto, 2005 APR 17, 03:20 UT Imaged by Geoff Chester with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 320 frames selected from a sequence of 700 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Triesnecker & Rima Hyginus, 2005 APR 17, 01:51 - 01:59 UT Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5 X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Mosaic image made from two separate sequences of 220 frames selected from a sequence of 600 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0	Arzachel, Alphonsus, & Ptolemaeus, 2005 APR 17, 02:07 - 02:17 UT Imaged by Geoff Chester with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5 X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Mosaic image made from three separate sequences of 220 frames selected from a sequence of 600 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with PhotoShop Elements 2.0

Jupiter and Saturn, 2005 APR 10 Imaged with USNO's 30.5-cm (12-inch) Clark/Saegmuller refractor and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite images made from 330 frames selected from a sequences of 700 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and post-processed with The GIMP 2.2.3.

Saturn, with inner moons Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys 2005 JAN 29 03:32 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5 X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro webcam. Composite image made from 422 frames selected from a sequence of 799 exposures digitally integrated and processed with RegiStax 3.0 and processed with The GIMP 2.2.3 and PhotoShop Elements 2.0 (brightness of moons enhanced).

Lunar Crater Copernicus, 2004 October 7, 10:29 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, 2X Barlow Lens, and a Phillips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam. 155 frames selected from 530 raw images, digitally stacked and processed using RegiStax 3D-Beta software.

The Crab Nebula, Messier 1 Imaged from Alexandria, VA, 2004 December 3. 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, f/6.3 focal reducer, and a Meade DSI CCD camera. Composite of 30 frames of 10-second exposures, stacked with RegiStax 3.0, final processing with The GIMP 2.2 and PhotoShop Elements 2.0.	The Pegasus globular cluster, Messier 15 Imaged from Alexandria, VA, 2004 December 3. 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, f/6.3 focal reducer, and a Meade DSI CCD camera. Composite of 30 frames of 10-second exposures, stacked with RegiStax 3.0, final processing with The GIMP 2.2 and PhotoShop Elements 2.0.

Planetary Nebula Messier 57 (The Ring Nebula) in Lyra Imaged 2004 September 5, 03:11 UTC from Alexandria, VA. 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, using afocal eyepiece projection through a 32-mm Plossl eyepiece to a remotely triggered Canon PowerShot A-70 digital camera.	The "other" Hercules globular cluster, Messier 92 Imaged 2004 September 5, 02:39 UTC from Alexandria, VA. 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, using afocal eyepiece projection through a 32-mm Plossl eyepiece to a remotely triggered Canon PowerShot A-70 digital camera.

Lunar Crater Aristarchus and surroundings 2004 SEP 26, 03:14 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam	Lunar Crater Gassendi and surroundings 2004 SEP 26, 02:54 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) f/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam

Jupiter, with Io & Europa shadows in transit 2004 MARCH 30, 02:33 - 03:54 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope 2X Barlow lens, and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam

Lunar Crater Clavius, 2004 Mar 03, 03:23 UT Celestar-8 20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2X Orion "Shorty Plus" triplet Barlow Lens, and a Philips ToUcam-Pro 740K webcam.

Saturn, 2003 DEC 29, 03:46 UTC Imaged with a 20-cm (8-inch) Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5X Barlow lens (w/5-cm extension tube) and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.	Saturn and its Moons, 2003 DEC 13, 04:37 UTC Imaged with the USNO's 26-inch f/15 "Great Equatorial" refractor and a Canon PowerShot A70 digital camera.

Mars, 2003 August 26
Images made at USNO using the 30-cm (12-inch) f/15 Clark/Saegmuller refractor (top),
and 15-cm (6-inch) f/9 Astro-Physics refractor (bottom)
with 2X Barlow lens and a Philips ToUcam Pro 740K webcam.

Ganymede eclipsed by Shadow of Europa
2003 February 11; 03:15, 03:17, 03:18, 03:19, and 03:20 UT
Images made with a 20-cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, 2.5X Barlow lens,
and a Philips ToUcam 740K webcam.

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