Prime focus Astrophotography with the 0.9 m Telescope of the McDonald Observatory

This poster describes a hands-on opportunity to carry out prime focus astrophotography using the 0.9 m (36 in) telescope at the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin. A Nikon D3300 and D850 cameras were placed at the prime focus point of this telescope, and with this setup, we obtained a large number of high-quality images of celestial targets. During this learning activity on observational astronomy, we carried out several nights of observations of galactic and extra-galactic objects with different conditions of seeing, cloud cover, and sky background. Images were taken in fine jpeg and raw format using a range of ISOs and exposure times. Objects photographed included planets, star clusters (e.g. Messier 13), galaxies, and nebulas (including the Ring Nebula - Messier 57). Observations were carried out during two summers and provided an exciting learning opportunity to two groups of students, both undergraduate and graduate of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

This work was supported by NSF grant PAARE AST-2219165.