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| Welsome to My Sky. My name is J.D. Knight, and I am the creator and Webmaster of Sea and Sky. I currently live in Orlando, Florida where I work as a graphic artist and web designer at a local technology firm. A few years ago I decided to create my own Web site. When it came time to choose a theme for the site, I decided to base it on my two favorite hobbies. I have always had a fond interest in the astronomy and space. |
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 A few years ago a friend gave me a small refractor telescope. I used it to view the Moon and the planets and was always amazed at what I saw. Eventually, I fell victim to a astronomy disease known as aperture fever. I wanted a bigger telescope. I managed to save enough money and purchased a 10-inch Meade Schmidt Cassegrain telescope with a motorized base. I was totally blown away by the improvement in picture quality with the new instrument. A short time later I joined the Central Florida Astronomical Society, our local Orlando astronomy club. CFAS is a wonderful organization, and during my time with the club I have made a lot of new friends. I eventually became interested in astrophotography. After investing in some good photography attachments for my telescope, I have managed to get quite a few good pictures. Astrophotography is particularly challenging here in central Florida because the weather is less than ideal most of the time. The humidity in the summer months renders the entire sky hazy on many evenings. My ultimate goal is to eventually acquire one of the new automated telescopes with a CCD digital camera in an outdoor observatory connected to my computer. Then I can be lazy and sit in the house and photograph the heavens until my heart's content. But for now, I am content with doing it the old fashioned way. Below is a small sampling of some of my astrophotos that I wish to share with you... |
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| Photo of the space shuttle taken through my telescope the morning of the Hubble Space Telescope launch. |
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| Photo of the Orion Nebula taken on 3200 speed film from the CFAS observing site. |
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| Photo of the Lagoon Nebula taken on 3200 speed film from the CFAS observing site. |
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| Photo of a globular cluster M5 in Serpens taken on 3200 speed film from the CFAS site. |
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| Photo of the Sun taken from my front yard using a Thousand Oaks glass solar filter. Note the sunspots. |
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| Closeup photo of the large sunspot group seen on the photo to the left. |
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| Photo of the Moon taken from my front yard on 100 speed film. |
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| Photo of Mars taken from my front yard on 100 speed film. The polar ice cap can be seen on top. |
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