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Matthew Phillips, P.Eng. M. Phillips
M. Phillips
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Sheet 04 — Astrophotography

Photographing things that are very far away.

I have been imaging galaxies, nebulae, celestial bodies, comets and star clusters since 2017. Most of what makes a frame usable happens after the shutter: stacking dozens or hundreds of exposures, then processing what the stack reveals.

It is also where the engineering and the hobby meet. Most of the mounts and adapters I use are ones I designed and printed.

View A — The Milky Way Galactic core

The Milky Way's galactic core rising in a dense star field, dust lanes clearly visible, over a lit treeline.

Gallery Deep sky, planets, the Moon

Total solar eclipse: the black lunar disc ringed by the Sun's white corona, with pink prominences on the limb.
Total solar eclipse — corona and prominences · 8 Apr 2024
The Heart and Soul nebulae as two faint red clouds in a dense star field, the Double Cluster at upper right.
Heart & Soul nebulae — IC 1805 and IC 1848
The Moon with its seas, craters and landing sites labelled in yellow and red.
The Moon — maria, craters and landing sites labelled
Saturn, its rings clearly separated from the planet's disc.
Saturn — rings resolved
Mars showing dark surface markings and a bright polar cap.
Mars — surface markings and polar cap
The International Space Station drawn as a straight bright line across a star field.
The ISS — a 28 second pass · 14 May 2021
Concentric star trails circling Polaris above silhouetted trees and a utility pole.
Star trails — circling Polaris, stacked
The Orion region annotated with star names, Orion's Belt and the Orion Nebula.
Orion — annotated · Jan 2020
A thin crescent Moon with craters visible along the terminator.
The Moon — waxing crescent

Details A — C Printed accessories

An orange 3D printed bracket holding a red dot sight on a camera hot shoe.
A — A hot shoe mount for a red dot finder. Pointing a long lens at a faint target is much easier with a finder than through the viewfinder.
A printed orange adapter beside a red dot sight and its rail.
B — The adapter that makes a rifle sight rail fit a camera. Printed, tested, reprinted until the dot held zero.
A printed grey lens cap with ASTRO embossed on the face, fitted to a lens.
C — A replacement lens cap, embossed so it is findable by touch in the dark.

Next — Projects

The flight sim joystick, resin printing, and the rest of the workshop.