Many enjoyable nights and some occasional frustrations were spent with that camera. On my backyard 8-inch LX3, success always required juggling several things at once. Polar alignment became easier with practice. The clock drive was adequate, and tracking "hiccups" with trailed images were simply deleted. The camera itself rarely gave me any trouble, but all the wires, cables and cooling water tubes were a handful to connect in the dark. Usually I spent as much time finding objects and tweaking focus as taking multiple, 60-second images. But on a good night, I could capture a dozen or more deep sky objects. I think the biggest "wow" factor came from seeing a supernova in some distant galaxy appear on the screen. By comparison, today's 32-bit processors and GUI software have made image calibration much less of a chore, and cheap memory and blazing clock speeds have removed post-processing roadblocks. Nowadays, printers and LCD projectors can display a wealth of detail and subtlety.
Over the years, my camera collected its share of photons, but technology advances and the CB 245 is definitely showing its age. Webcams and digicams in afocal mode produce stunning, high resolution color images of the sun, moon and planets. Advances in sensor design have produced video cameras with amazing sensitivity. Low noise chips now allow digicam exposures of a minute or more, while software transforms them in to bona fide deep-sky imagers. In magazines, astro-dedicated "turnkey" color CCD systems are now advertised for less than what Cookbook parts cost in 1994.
Astrophotography today encompasses all forms of film and electronic imaging, and digital now dominates this segment of the hobby. There’s no telling what we’ll be using ten years from now. Two things are for certain though: imaging will continue to become easier and more spectacular, and there will be exciting things to image under a starry sky.
Can you recognize these deep-sky objects? These are my favorites of about 40 Cookbook images that have appeared in past issues. Moondark is written by Doug Miller, published on the Moondark web site, and printed in the Delmarva Star Gazers' Star Gazer News. This document was last revised on 22 August 2004. Text and images copyright © 2004 by Douglas C. Miller, All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced in any form without prior permission.
