Joe Bergeron Astrophotography
Space Art
All images copyright by Joe Bergeron. They may not be used for any reason without permission.

My astro-imaging equipment is slowly improving. My best mount is a much-upgraded Losmandy G-11. I also have a Celestron Advanced VX mount which is usable for smaller telescopes. I have acquired a ZWO ASI120 Mini guide camera and an Orion Mini Guider scope. Guiding has greatly enhanced my capabilities, though also increasing the complexity of the system by necessitating the use of a computer in the field.

My most convenient telescope for this sort of thing is my 92mm Astro-Physics f/6.6 refractor. The G-11 handles this small scope well. I also use my 155mm f/9 EDT refractor on the G-11, a combination that works surprisingly well. I also do piggyback work using various Olympus Zuiko lenses and a generic fisheye.

My first camera was an unmodified Canon Rebel XS, a basic model which nevertheless was pretty capable. I then moved up to an Olympus E-PL5 mirrorless camera, which proved to be both more sensitive and less noisy than the old Canon. Now I mostly use a ZWO ASI294MC Pro color CMOS camera, which has been another big upgrade in capability. I have only begun to upload images taken with that camera to this site.

Some of these images were shot at Cherry Springs State Park in Pennsylvania, the Winter Star Party in the Florida Keys, or Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Others were made from an orange-yellow semi-rural site. Most recently I've been using a Bortle 3 site in the Mojave Desert.

Most of these photos are stacks of 6-36 exposures ranging in length from 2 to 10 minutes each. I control the process using a Mac laptop. PHD2 controls the autoguider. Nebulosity controls the ZWO camera.

Today I consider myself a journeyman imager, always trying to improve my results. If I had been able to produce such images 30 years ago, I would have been hailed as one of the greatest astrophotographers in the world!





The Bubble Nebula and M52


M1, the Crab Nebula



M42, the Orion Nebula


M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy



Comet Garradd and M71



Comet Garradd and M71:
One Day Later

M8, the Lagoon Nebula

 

M31, the Andromeda Galaxy



M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy

North America Nebula (wide field)



M45, the Pleiades Star Cluster

M17, the Swan Nebula

The Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae



M20, the Trifid Nebula


The Veil Nebula in Cygnus 

The Veil Nebula in Cygnus
(Broomstick section)

Solar Activity

Galactic Core

 

Large Sagittarius Star Cloud



M24, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud

M31 Rising



The Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae

Summer Milky Way



The Stinger of Scorpius



M13, the Hercules Star Cluster


The Horsehead Nebula



M42 and the Sword of Orion



M46 and M47, Star Clusters in Puppis

Command Module
                      Interior

Red Cliffs

Moonset



Fireball

Silver Clouds



M27, the Dumbbell Nebula


The North America Nebula




M81 and M82 in Ursa Major



The Double Cluster in Perseus


M16, the Eagle Nebula


Comet PANSTARRS


The Cocoon Nebula


M15


M101 in Ursa Major


NGC 281, the Pac-Man Nebula


The Rosette Nebula


The Helix Nebula


The Eta Carinae Nebula


M94


The Sunflower Galaxy


The Whale and Hockey Stick Galaxies


The Leo Trio


The Soul Nebula


M3