Space Pics I've Taken

Something I rarely EVER do is share my pictures/photography with anyone who is not close to me, but, because I've previously put these on Facebook, I figured someone's probably used them in some shape way or form. So please enjoy these space pics I've taken from Rolnick observatory.

All of these pictures were taken with an iPhone 6 (and because I'm typing this from my phone, I've had to screen shot the pics off my iphone  - sorry!), and not with my professional camera. My professional camera pictures are even better. I'll also be travelling to Aruba in August and visiting an observatory there (that's being constructed by one person !).

The first picture is obviously of the moon. No zoom on my end, however, if you consider a telescope a 'zoom' then I did 'zoom in'... It was taken with my personal telescope, which is nothing more than a $300 beginner telescope.

The second picture is Jupiter and it's moons! Jupiter has (4) moons... Europa, Ganymede, Io, and Callisto. Those little tiny specs you see.. yup, those are the moons! The glowing ball you see is Jupiter. This also was taken with a smaller telescope at zero zoom. If I was to have a bigger telescope like at the observatory, i'd be able to zoom in much more and get a closer picture.

This third picture is Saturn! This was one of the most difficult pictures taken, because Saturn moves SO quickly compared to the other planets, if you don't have a self-tracking telescope, you have to polar align it every 5-8 seconds. Also, trying to take this picture on an iphone is very difficult. It usually comes out as a ball of light. you have to adjust the focus manually on your iphone.

And this fourth picture is one of my favorites (although one of the least quality).. The top glowing orb-like planet is Venus. This picture was taken last summer when Jupiter and Venus were going to "cross" (you might have seen it on Facebook or news channels around last June - July!).  The bottom glowing planet is Jupiter, and you can kind of see the four moons.