Some of my Astrophotos

My name is Keith Hoffman, and 2 of my hobbies happen to be astronomy and photography, I like to combine the two!
If you linked direct to this page, and want to see my general web page, or my other special interest pages, follow the return to: link on the bottom of this page.

I am a member of the OCA (Orange County Astronomers) amateur astronomy club, here is a link to the official OCA homepage .

Most of my astrophotos are taken at the site in ANZA CA, with my own cameras/lenses, and other equipment owned by either the club, or other members.

I began my college level Astronomy in 1994 at Irvine Valley College in a class called astr.20 (general astronomy, w/ Prof. McCord) in the Physics/Astronomy department. In 1997, at Saddleback College , I took Astr.25 (observational astronomy, w/ Prof. Haeri)

People have been here since July 10,1997

M42, the Orion Nebula © 1996 Keith Hoffman, all rights reserved. Taken through the OCA's 22" Kuhn telescope in Anza, CA  Unguided 90sec exposure, prime focus f8, 400 agfa/costco film.

Comet Hyakutake, © 1996 Keith Hoffman, all rights reserved
Taken with my 200 mm Nikkor lens, piggybacked on an OCA member's scope, at the site in Anza, CA. Manually guided 10 minute exposure f4, 400 agfa/costco film

Waning Gibbous Moon © 1995 Keith Hoffman, all rights reserved. Taken through C11 scope at OCA observatory, Anza, CA .

NEW PHOTOS FROM MY RECENT 2004/2005 re-entry into the hobby! This time with my own equipment!

Sagittarius widefield... the center of our MILKYWAY galaxy, as seen from a .56x wide angle perspective. 15 minute guided exposure, Orion Skyview Pro127, piggybacked Nikon camera/28mm lens f2.8, fuji superia 800 film.  April 2005, Anza CA

Widefield Orion Belt/Sword region, Piggybacked on SVP127... info at top of image. Dec 2004, El Cariso CA

M13 Globular Cluster in Hercules. 8second digital exposure through 8"f4 scope on SVP mount June 2005 Fountain Valley CA... better version coming soon!

Crescent Moon and Earthshine (dark portion dimly illuminated by sunlight reflected off of the Earth), M45-Pleadies/Seven Sisters star cluster sets behind a tree. The conjuntion of M45 and the Moon was a great sight in binoculars! Piggyback 80-200mm lens on SVP mount.  Spring 2005

The same sight, yet taken prime focus through Celestron 80mm F11 refractor on SVP mount. Stars at right are part of M45

Observing in the pre-dawn sky. This photo was taken with my 28mm lens on a mini tripod on the ground looking up. Scorpius can be seen on the left, and the scopes pictured are, from left, Celestron Nexstar 80GTL with tripod/mounting improvements, Barska 15x70 Binoculars on Orion Paragon HDf2 Tripod, Orion SVP127, and Barska 9x63 roof prism binoculars on Velbon Stratos 470 tripod. The "ghosts" are simply me "posing" at each scope taking a view during the 20-30 second approximate expousre. The 2 scopes were pointed at Mars as it started to make its appearance in the dawn. April 2005, Anza CA.

MUSIC! I also play music, and am a sound engineer, check out TRANSIENT AUDIO, my engineering site.

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People have hit ANY of my pages since July 10, 1997

This number got around 20,000 or so, before aol lost the counter for some reason.

what do you think about my photos? email me to talk astrophotography