Terry Hancock www.downunderobservatory. com's photostream  

©Terry Hancock - All Rights Reserved.
All my photographs are protected under international copyright law. Do not abuse these rights. If you wish to use any of my work for non commercial use you may do so providing you contact me prior.
If you are interested in using any of my work in any form of publication or for commercial enquiries, please contact me: terry.hancock@rocketmail.com



About me
My interest in Astronomy along with photography began some 40 years ago in Australia. I was inspired by Sir Patrick Moore of the BBC and Sky at Night.

The wonders of our universe are infinite and the idea of gazing up into the night sky and being able to observe clusters, nebulae and galaxies that existed way before mankind existed still fascinates me today. The night sky is like a virtual time machine.

My parents bought me my first telescope which was a 4 ½” Newtonian Reflector on a very crudely made German Equatorial Mount, this type of telescope is still a very popular choice for people starting out with Astronomy. It provided my very first glimpse of the Moon, the rings of Saturn and Jupiter. In the early 80's I acquired my first Schmidt Cassegrain Reflector scope which gave amazing views of many Deep Sky objects and I was really hooked.

I would usually travel to outback regions in Northern Victoria where the skies are so dark (1 on the bortle scale) the milky way would cast a shadow.
I dabbled in astrophotography using a 35mm Olympus OM1 SLR (a popular choice for astro photographers during the day) while mounted on a 10" SCT, for guiding I had an off axis guider requiring me to adjust the Right ascension and declination manually once every few seconds. Unfortunately I found this to be too difficult and soon after abandoned any idea of being able to successfully produce any astro images apart from short exposure moon shots.

My ambition to be able to capture the glory of the night skies never disappeared and one day I hoped to be able to shoot The Andromeda Galaxy, from Australia this object is rarely above the horizon.

In 2000 I moved to the USA and not long after settled in Muskegon, Michigan. I decided once more to combine both my passions for Astronomy and Photography with the purchase of my first telescope that would be dedicated to deep sky imaging mounted on a concrete pier in an 8' x 8' shed with a "batwing" style removable roof, I call this my backyard observatory. While living in “light polluted” Muskegon I was associated with the Muskegon Astronomical Society where I met Mr. Stephen Wessling, the founder and President of Newaygo County Dark Sky Astronomers and after moving to the tiny town of Bridgeton (close to Fremont) in 2008, I became a member of the Newaygo County Dark Sky Astronomers.
My tiny observatory was soon rebuilt and today houses a 5" Refractor telescope, a 14.5” Newtonian telescope and a Paramount German Equatorial mount. My ambition and my dream to someday capture the beauty of the Andromeda Galaxy with a camera and telescope has been realized and much more.

What are we looking at?

My astro images are all images of deep sky objects, many of them thousands or millions of light years away from Earth, we are kind of looking into a virtual time machine and in some cases at objects where their light we see today commenced it’s journey before man walked our planet.
For example, M31 "The Andromeda Galaxy" the closest spiral galaxy to our own "the milky way" is some 2.5 million light years away from us. In areas like mine in Bridgeton, Fremont and at the Stephen F Wessling Observatory It is visible on a moonless night with the naked eye and seen as a faint smudge in the constellation of Andromeda. It covers an area of sky equal to more than 6 times the diameter of the moon. Even when viewed through a moderately powerful telescope, little detail can be seen. In order to be able to capture the light and detail from a dim object such as M31, it is necessary to shoot really long exposures and lots of them, I usually shoot 15 minute or 20 minute exposures. The DSLR or CCD camera is hooked up to a telescope which is essentially a giant telephoto lens. This telescope along with other equipment is connected to an equatorial mount (instead of a tripod) and it follows the target across the sky as the earth rotates. The M31 project took quite a few clear nights where the telescope is pointed at the same target and framed in exactly the same position each night. At the end of the project each exposure is combined to equal the total exposure time (in the case of M31 which was a 10 hour exposure and then stacked together to create one single image, then later processed in photoshop.

Please visit my website www.DownUnderObservatory.com

My Blog downunderobservatory.tumblr.com/







Astrophotography Exhibition Dogwood Center Fremont MI


Published in Astronomy Magazine's "Spectacular Universe" page 65 Summer 2011 www.astronomy.com/en/Magazine/Special%20Issues/2008/10/Sp...


A recent article by Doug Furton in The Grand Haven Tribune newspaper titled "WHAT'S UP: Astro-photographs are like nothing you’ve ever seen"
www.grandhaventribune.com/content/whats-astro-photographs...