These are some of my early astrophotography shots. Obviously, I still have some work to do.

Be aware these images are all around 2 MB. I took them with a Minolta X-700.

An overexposed shot of the moon taken 10/11/03, Fuji ISO 100 film, through a Vivitar 75-205mm zoom lens with a x2 multiplier on the end (so 410mm total equivalent), f/5.8, 1 second exposure. I’ve since started shooting at 1/250 second, f/8 - we’ll see how those come out.

Star trails of Mars.Took this at 12:37 AM on 10/11/03, 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.

Another Mars star trail from 10/11/03, 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.

The Moon, the Pleiades, and a bunch of other stuff. Taken 10/12/03 around 1:15 AM, 7 second exposure (note the slight streaking) on a 50mm lens set to f/2 aperture. The Moon is the insanely bright object in the upper left, with the Pleiades the cluster of stars nearby - note how many are there? I couldn't see that many with the naked eye. Above the treeline, you'll see another bright light. I have no clue what this is - I don't recall seeing it. Perhaps an airplane came into the field of view, or something? Tonight, when I get back from class, I'll go through and try to ID some of the other stars in the pic. Think I'm going to get this one enlarged and frame it, though - it came out pretty nicely, IMHO. 8)

1. This is Orion, believe it or not, taken 10/12/03. I took this from 1:15 to 1:30 AM, to track the movement. Note the several stationary spots? Guessing those are dust on the lens, or spots whose apparrent motion is just that slow - geosynchronous satellites? Again, I'll be doing some identification when I get home and can look at my chart. The bright red streak, IIRC, is Rigel, though. Obviously, still have a major issue with light pollution, but it still came out OK. :)