One of several old Barn Door Trackers...

Here are some old pics I came across, of one of the Barn Door Trackers I had.
I tried to get it to work...but literally blew out transistors on the circuit board because the camera was too heavy. I went through two Stepper Motor controller boards, before I gave up and sold it.

The Andromeda Galaxy

Taken with a Canon 50mm lens, attached to Meade DSI CCD camera.

~200 exposures of 2.8 seconds each, stacked using Nebulosity software.

Messier Object M16

The "eagle" is not visible, since this is a very wide field shot. It is a very small dark area of nebulosity deep inside the nebula - and a camera lens isn't going to show it, It would need more magnification (i.e. a telescope).

Messier Object M23

A multiple-update post -

Going to try to fit in a lot of developments, in one post - In a nut shell:
After many attempts at Astrophotography with 35mm film, I moved to Medium format.
After many attempts with Medium format cameras, lenses and Kodak E200 slide film: I still didn't produce any images that I'd say are even worthy of posting here. They just weren't anything special.
So, we're going to skip all the pics of medium format cameras, lenses and the images they produced, since none of them were anything "to write home about".
Sold all my medium format cameras, lenses, film and mailers.
>>>>Fast forward>>>>Decided what the heck - And took the plunge into CCD imaging.
Got a used Meade DSI-C (one shot color) CCD camera used, off e-bay for a little under $200.
Bought an SLR lens to CCD adapter from Mogg adapters in the land down under for ~$70 (shipped) and started up the steep learning curve...
To make a long story short - I've been having a lot of fun! Been using both 50mm and 135mm fast Canon lenses (from my Canon AE-1). I've been getting some nice results - especially considering that none of my exposures have even gone much more than 5 minutes total.
I'm still just a beginner in the world of CCD Astrophotography, and have a long way to go.
But after only a few weeks -I finally have a really nice image (for a beginner) that I can post here. It was taken from my light-polluted backyard, in Bronx NY.
It is of Messier object, M17, the Swan Nebula:





This was taken with the Meade DSI, a Canon 135mm F/2.5 lens, set at F/4, A stack of 87 2.8 second exposures, stacked using Nebulosity's Drizzle feature. (Drizzle was developed by NASA to be used for the Hubble Space Telescope's images). The image has been saved in JPG format and compressed from it's original un-compressed format for easier uploading, viewing, etc.

Random Star Field near Cygnus

Taken with the awesome Yashica Electro GSN 35. Slide film on EQ-1 tracking mount.

Exposure ~1.5 minutes.

Enhanced with Adobe Photoshop CS. Converted to JPG to decrease image size.

My current (low budget) equipment

The Canon AE-1, in the lower right hand corner, is my most expensive (and most used) camera.

Best shots yet - Shot in Long Island NY

The shot above features the Orion constellation, on the right side of the pic.

Below: The Pleaides and Hyades star clusters.

It sure is nice to be able to take pics under less light polluted skies...These were shot on Long Island.

These are fixed tripod shots, taken with the Minolta SRT-201. I believe I probably used the 45mm "pancake" lens for this shot (stopped down a stop or two) - it was way too cold to take proper notes.

Gemini

The Gemini Constellation, shot outside my back window, in Bronx, NY.

(under lots of light pollution). Used 35mm camera, slide film on Orion EQ-1 motorized mount.

Exposure ~30 seconds.

M44 - The Beehive Cluster

Shot out of my back window, in Bronx NY. Camera: Minolta SRT-201, 135mm lens, Kodak E200 color slide film, exposed for ~30 seconds. Mounted on Orion EQ-1 motorized mount.

The single slide was scanned on an Epson 4490 scanner. Minimal image enhancement & HotPixel removal.

The Pleaides taken with Kodak E200 Slide film

Taken with Minolta SRT-201, Kodak E200 Slide film, slide scanned on Epson 4490 photo scanner. Only very minor software enhancement.

Cassiopeia region

Sigma SA-300, 28mm zoom lens, ~90 degrees, 30" exposure on Hypered Fuji 800 film.

Minor enhancement with Paint.net. Andromeda galaxy visible as a faint smudge indicated by black arrow.

Orion's belt & sword region - Hypered film

Sigma SA-300, zoom lens set to 70mm, ~30" exposure, on Lumicon hypered - Fuji 800 print film. About 45 degrees above horizon. Enhanced using Paint.net & HotPixels software.

Film photo - 4x6 Print that was scanned

Sigma SA-300, ~30" exposure, fixed tripod, 28-70mm Sigma zoom lens set at 50mm ( I believe). Taken from Long Island NY. Cropped & slightly enhanced using Paint.net.

Film photos - 4x6 Prints that were scanned

Taken with a Sigma SA-300, 28-70mm zoom lens, fixed tripod with objects almost directly over head (~90 deg. ). Exposure was 30 seconds. Scanned on a standard flatbed scanner, and very little enhancement, using Paint.net

Captured the Pleiades and Hyades in the same pic. I may have had the lens set at 28mm? Don't recall...

Comet Holmes -

Taken on Nov 3rd, from Long Island; with 3.1MP Canon S1 IS. Camera settings were not recorded. Not a great photo, by any stretch. But, it's one of the few decent shots I got of comet Holmes. ISO 400, 10 Sec. exposure at F3.2, 10x zoom.

Another shot of comet Holmes - too bad the airliner had to fly through it - it would have been a nice one.

The moon, taken on 10/27/07 with Samsung S630

Camera used was a Samsung S630, on a fixed tripod, 1 sec. exposure, 3x optical zoom, ISO of 400:

First recognizable photos - Orion's Belt and M42

This was taken with a very inexpensive, point-and-shoot digital camera on Long Island 10/27/07. The camera used was a Samsung S630, on a fixed tripod, 8 sec. exposure, 3x optical zoom, ISO of 400: