From Solar System Photoshoot

Model and Makeup: Abi Bautista

Jovian System from LaVale Lions Memorial Field, LaVale, Allegany, Maryland, USA (2021-09-07). www.nicolesharp.net/

8" Newtonian at F/6, processed with RegiStax.

Jovian System from LaVale Lions Memorial Field, LaVale, Allegany, Maryland, USA (2021-09-06). www.nicolesharp.net/

C8 telescope at F/10 and Imaging Source video camera. Video frames stacked with RegiStax. Enlarged 150%.

Corona, a single exposure.

Terrible photo, but beautiful scenery. To my shame, I don't know the lunar features besides the maria by name without consulting maps.

William Korthof, System Designer for Energy Efficiency Solar of Pomona teaches the details of the photovoltaic system during the Sustainable Workshop Series with the Solar Living Institute at Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer

12.5" F/4.5 Newtonian at prime focus with Canon DSLR and coma corrector.

Saturn overexposed to show moons. Imaging Source b/w video camera. Images processed with RegiStax6.

Jovian System from LaVale Lions Memorial Field, LaVale, Allegany, Maryland, USA (2021-09-07). www.nicolesharp.net/

bean - mercury

grape - venus

cherry - earth

pea - mars

mango - jupiter (supposed to be a grapefruit)

orange - saturn

peach - uranus

plum - neptune

hula hoop - sun

At the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum

Bodypainting by Cindy Furger

Same video sequence processed with AVIStack and RegiStax. Overall, I like the RegiStax version better.

William Korthof, System Designer for Energy Efficiency Solar of Pomona teaches the details of the photovoltaic system during the Sustainable Workshop Series with the Solar Living Institute at Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer

Marginal seeing, about 10:00pm PDT, a little early for Saturn.

Jupiter with Io and Europa. 14" Newtonian and Imaging Source video camera. RegiStax used for processing.

Using my awesome Cosmic Explorer and experimenting with long shutter speeds and my cell phone as the light source.

William Korthof, System Designer for Energy Efficiency Solar of Pomona teaches the details of the photovoltaic system during the Sustainable Workshop Series with the Solar Living Institute at Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer

Comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARS) just after sunset on March 12, 2013. Shot from Henry Coe State Park using a Nikon D600 attached to a Celestron EdgeHD 11 telescope.

You can tell this is a new equipment because Pluto's not on the map.

The polar hood is evident in this image.

Jovian System from LaVale Lions Memorial Field, LaVale, Allegany, Maryland, USA (2021-09-07). www.nicolesharp.net/

This artist's concept puts solar system distances in perspective. The scale bar is in astronomical units, with each set distance beyond 1 AU representing 10 times the previous distance. One AU is the distance from the sun to the Earth, which is about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers. Neptune, the most distant planet from the sun, is about 30 AU.

Informally, the term "solar system" is often used to mean the space out to the last planet. Scientific consensus, however, says the solar system goes out to the Oort Cloud, the source of the comets that swing by our sun on long time scales. Beyond the outer edge of the Oort Cloud, the gravity of other stars begins to dominate that of the sun.

The inner edge of the main part of the Oort Cloud could be as close as 1,000 AU from our sun. The outer edge is estimated to be around 100,000 AU.

NASA's Voyager 1, humankind's most distant spacecraft, is around 125 AU. Scientists believe it entered interstellar space, or the space between stars, on Aug. 25, 2012. Much of interstellar space is actually inside our solar system. It will take about 300 years for Voyager 1 to reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud and possibly about 30,000 years to fly beyond it.

Alpha Centauri is currently the closest star to our solar system. But, in 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will be closer to the star AC +79 3888 than to our own sun. AC +79 3888 is actually traveling faster toward Voyager 1 than the spacecraft is traveling toward it.

The Voyager spacecraft were built and continue to be operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The Voyager missions are a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about Voyager, visit: www.nasa.gov/voyager and voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA image use policy.

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.

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16" F/4.6 Newtonian and 1.8X barlow. Video frames stacked and processed with RegiStax.

This is a stitch-together of 5 shots, and here are the techy-stats: f/0, 1/50th second exposure time, ISO 400. I've always thought that the waxing-half of the moon has more interesting features to look at than the waning half, including the Pallus Somni, that of 6-sided sort-of-diamond-shaped plateau on the upper-left portion of the shot. It was this deatil that first jumped out at me the very first time I looked through a real telescope and I've been hooked ever since.

Venus visits the Sun from my front yard.

8" F/6 Newtonian at prime focus, video frames stacked with RegiStax.

Project 365

26 MAR 2011

A scene from a diorama I found at our local Y. Neptune. Not terribly exciting, but it is a nice shade of blue.

Blog post (including a tangent about Pluto's loss of planet status) here.

Jupiter with Io, taken with a 16" F/4.6 Newtonian reflector. About 700 frames stacked and processed with RegiStax. Imaging Source 640 X 480 b&w video camera.

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager, located at the top of the rover's mast.

This image was acquired on March 11, 2025 (Sol 1442) at the local mean solar time of 10:45:46.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP/Thomas Thomopoulos

Image from video stacked and processed with RegiStax. 14" F/4.5 Newtonian.

Jupiter, Aug 21. I don't know how much better I can shoot this planet....but I intend to keep trying to see what else I can get.

Jupiter, from about 10-10:30 pm PDT. Images made from video frames stacked and processed with RegiStax. 8" F/6 telescope and 1.8X Barlow, Imaging Source video camera. Twin shadows of Europa and Ganymede.

Added Pluto (far right) with its biggest moon, Charon

www.123zeroenergy.com/pricing/solar-pv/solar-cables/195-m...

William Korthof, System Designer for Energy Efficiency Solar of Pomona teaches the details of the photovoltaic system during the Sustainable Workshop Series with the Solar Living Institute at Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer

Smaller than Pluto but still the tidal lock makes this more of a twin planet linked to Pluto...

Our Closest Neighbor

Jupiter taken on April 16, 2002 with a Sony DSC-P50 camera mounted on a 17mm plossl eyepiece through a 8" SCT.

Spent 24 hours of class time over 3 days while on assignment learning about straw and solar.... William Korthof, System Designer for Energy Efficiency Solar of Pomona teaches the details of the photovoltaic system during the Sustainable Workshop Series with the Solar Living Institute at Cal Poly Pomona's Lyle Center, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Eric Reed/photographer