Astro-photography - Puimichel 2002
In May 2002 I went on my first real astronomy holiday. I joined a group of Dutch astrophotographers going to the pictoresque village of Puimichel in Provence, France. This place is quite dark, enjoys a pleasant climate with many clear nights and allows us to make photos of some southern objects unavailable from the Netherlands.
All photos except the conjunction photos have been made with an OM1 body piggybacked on top of the C8-DX
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang in Hercules Puimichel, 11-12 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 15 min, Kodak Supra 400, photo cropped Both M92 and M13 are visible. M92 is the white "star" to the lower left of the comet, M13 near the lower right corner (the tail points toward it) |
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Comet Ikeya-Zhang and M13 Puimichel, 14-15 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 15 min, Kodak Supra 400, photo cropped M13 is visible below the center. The tail has fainted considerably since the previous photo 3 days ago. |
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Conjunction of Moon, Venus and Mars Puimichel, 14 May, 2002, 20:10 UT 135/2.8 lens at f/5.6, 5 sec, Kodak Supra 400, slightly cropped |
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Conjunction of Moon, Venus and Mars Puimichel, 14 May, 2002, 20:15 UT 135/2.8 lens at f/5.6, 5 sec, Kodak Supra 400 Cropped and enlarged photo taken a few minutes later than the previous photo |
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Milky Way between Sagittarius and Aquila Puimichel, 14-15 May, 2002 50/1.8 lens at f/4, 17 min, Kodak Supra 400, processed to remove gradient How many Messier objects can you spot on this photo? The large image includes an annotated version |
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Milky Way in Sagittarius between M7 and M8 Puimichel, 16-17 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 15 min, Kodak Supra 400 |
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Milky Way between M8 and M16 Puimichel, 13-14 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 20 min, Kodak Supra 400, processed to remove gradient One of the most interesting areas of the Summer Milky Way with several Messier objects visible. Most prominent are from top to bottom: M16 (Eagle Nebula), M17 (Omega Nebula), M24 (Small Sagittarius Star Cloud), M23 (to the right of M24), M20 (Trifid Nebula) and M8 (Lagoon Nebula) |
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Altair and B142/143 (Barnard's E) Puimichel, 14-15 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 25 min, Kodak Supra 400 The Milky Way in Aquila (The Eagle). The bright blue star to the lower left is Altair. |
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North-America Nebula (NGC 7000) Puimichel, 16-17 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 20 min, Kodak Supra 400 |
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Alkaid and Mizar in Ursa Major Puimichel, 14-15 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 20 min, Kodak Supra 400 The two bright stars form the end of the Big Dipper handle. Two galaxies are visible: The gray fuzz to the upper left is M101 and to the lower right M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy can be spotted as a fuzzy "double star" |
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Virgo Galaxy Cluster Puimichel, 14-15 May, 2002 135/2.8 lens at f/4, 15 min, Kodak Supra 400 This photo covers most of the Virgo Cluster, the most nearby massive galaxy cluster. Dozens of small galaxies are visible in this photo. All galaxies brighter than approx. magnitude 12 have been labelled |