Perseids

Black Forest 2009-New Camera

I got the itch to try out a OSC (one shot color) CCD camera. Not that I was actively looking for a new camera, but when I saw the price for a CCD Labs Q453 (QHY8), I couldn't resist. I sold my mono SBIG ST-2000 and accessories and had more than enough cash to cover the purchase of the Q453 as well as many many other accessories. I even got the camera with enough time to practice using it before I would be under the pristine skies of Cherry Springs State Park. The practice paid off. It did take me a couple hours to get the bugs of my entire system worked out on the first night in Pennsylvania. Once I did though, I was amazed by the performance of this new camera. I was very surprised by its sensitivity. I limited the time on each one of my targets to one hour as it seemed that this was more than enough signal to produce a pleasing image. All images were taken through a Takahashi Sky 90 with flattener and Q453 OSC camera. All subframes were dark subtracted and flat subtracted. Aligned and stacked in DSS and processed in photoshop. The results are below.

First up is the Veil Nebula supernova remnant. It is a two frame mosaic with each frame consisting of 4 x 15minute subs. For a total exposure of 2 hours. I was amazed at how easy these images were to process. Reduction, aligning, and stacking done automatically in DSS. Stretching in photoshop was a piece of cake. Very minimal increase in saturation applied. No color balance needed. This was the fastest I have ever processed an astrophoto in all my years of imaging, and that includes putting the mosaic together. What a nice camera!

Next up is the Swan Nebula and the Sagittarius Star Cloud. This is a single frame consisting of 4 x 15minute exposures for total of one hour.

I decided to do another masaic on this, the North American and Pelican Nebulae. A single frame with my setup just can't show these two objects together in all their glory. I wish I would have gotten more exposure on this one. This is a mosaic of two frames, each consisting of 4 x 15 min subs for total of two hours.

Galaxy M33 tempted me next. Single frame as above, 4 x 15 min for total one hour.

I think this one is my favorite, probably because of all the colors...reds, blues, browns, all captured with the push of one button. Single frame, 4 x 15min, total one hour.

Last but not least, the andromeda galaxy. This target always attracts me. New camera, new scope means one of the first objects I shoot. I'm just fascinated by its beauty. Anyway, single frame 4 x 15 minutes, one hour.

Sun Dogs

Veil Updated With Ha Data

This image uses the same LRGB data from the post below but now with 4 hours of Hydrogen Alpha data added. About 99% processing techniques from Ron Wodaski's last two books and about 1% experimentation to get the results I wanted. LRGB and Ha combined in photoshop with the Ha added as a Luminance layer. Ron suggests using about 50% transparency in his book. Personally I thought that it sacrificed too much of my Ha data. I may rework it at a lower percentage however, for now I am happy. The only problem was that by keeping it at 100%, my brighter stars has colored ghosts around them. To get around this, I just selected the bright stars on the LRGB layer, expanded the selection a bit, feathered the selection and then reduced the brightness. The only problem is that this appears to get rid of all of the color for the star. Anyone have any other suggestions on how better to do this???

Black Forest Star Party 2008

My wife and I were able to sneak away to Black Forest Star Party this year. It is one of my favorite places to go and the skies are amazing! I usually try to get to Cherry Springs at least once a year. What an amazing time we had. The people are great and the Pennsylvania countryside is gorgeous! Anyway, here are some astroimages I was able to acquire at this years event.
First up is the Veil Nebula, aka NGC 6960. The first night I imaged this object, I was only able to collect 2 hours of luminance and 40 minutes each of red and green before it slipped behind a tree. Thankfully, the next night was clear as well. I was able to obtain the blue I needed that second night, but realized the next day that I shot it in full resolution instead of binned 2x2 like the red and green. Thankfully, once again, we had one more somewhat clear night. A former hurricane blew over and the skies did not clear until around 2 am. When they did clear, there were a lot of sporadic clouds passing over. I was able to get the blue I needed to complete this image in between clouds and was not able to image anything else the rest of the night. Thank goodness for that 20 minutes of blue! It was a lot of work to get it, but I am blown away by how good the image turned out. One of my best so far. In fact, all the images take at this star party are some of my best work yet. Things sure are a lot easier when you have dark skies!!! Image details are Tak Sky 90 with reducer and ST-2000xm, L-120min 1x1 (10min subs), R&G-40min each 2x2 (10min subs), B-20min 2x2 (10min subs). Dark reduced, aligned, and stacked in CCDSoft, further processed in Photoshop CS3. Not only did I have trouble capturing the blue for this image, I found out the first time I went to use my camera that my dessicant needed recharged. I wasn't even able to get my camera down to 0 without some frosting. All my images were shot at +10deg which added a lot of noise.


Next up is NGC 6992 and friends. Also part of the Veil Network Nebula this one is often referred to as "The Claw". I had no trouble obtaining the LRGB for this one like I did above. Same setup as above, L-60min 1x1 (10min subs), R&G-30min 2x2 (5min subs), B-15min 2x2 (5min subs).

On to Andromeda. I've shot andromeda on several occasions, but this time I wanted to try something new...my first mosaic. I tackled this potential mosaic in three sections...left, middle, right. I shot 30 minutes of each frame (10min subs) and shot 10 minutes of the core (2min subs). Images callibrated and stacked in CCDSoft and further processed and combined into a mosaic in Photoshof CS3. I think it turned out extremely well for my first mosaic. It looks like I'm shooting with a large format camera but it takes me a lot longer :(


It's that time of year again...the hunter is on the rise. Orion was a beautiful site in a large dob but it is even more spectacular to image. It isn't up very high until late in the night and just before dawn. I was still up at this time so I fugured I would try and image it. I shot L-30min 1x1 (5min subs) and L(core)-5min (15sec subs). Turned out OK, but I would love to go a lot deeper!


This was the first object I imaged on this trip. While waiting for the veil to position itself right where I wanted it, I aimed my setup at the Eagle Nebula. This allowed me to work out some bugs and make sure everything was working properly. I captured 40min of luminance with 10min subs. This is really a tough object to process. It took a lot of effort to bring out the faint nebula while also trying to keep the central part of the "eagle" recognizeable. I will definitely be reworking this one one of these days. Overall, I am satisfied with this one though.


Ok, there is a long story behind this one but I'll try to keep it short. This last image is of the Coathanger star pattern. I would have liked to get RGB but clouds kept ruining my exposures. This is a single green exposure of 5 minutes. The story is as follows: A group of guys, myself included, decided to do some binocular observing. Someone brought up the Coathanger and inquired about it's location. I began panning with my binoculars and came across a very similar grouping of start and told the others that I had found it near Cassiopeia. Eventually someone else found the real Coathanger with the help from some computer software and it turned out to be nowhere near Cassiopeia. The rest of the weekend I did not live that one down. Everyone (John) would say where is that Coathanger again...Cassiopeia. It was good fun though. One thing is for sure, I will never forget where the real Coathanger is....just about half way between Vega and Altair. This one was just for you John G.

A Few Images From Cherry Springs Star Party

Had my first somewhat successful imaging at a true dark site. Still had some problems as I don't get to image as often as I'd like. After I got the bugs worked out I was actually able to get a few good hours of images.
My first attempt was the snake nebula. Probably not a good first choice because it is not in my G-11 goto and a search in The Sky will not find it. Took me a while to locate it. After I did, I was able to capture a couple hours worth of 30 min subs. This image is an average of 4 30 min subs. No darks or flats were subtracted. I still have some work to do but think it has come out quite well so far. I really wanted to get some color as well but with all the amateur problems I run into color was out of the question.
On another clear night, I decided to shoot the iris nebula. Was able to capture 3 hours on this one and it definitely needed. I was really not happy with this one until I averaged the final 30 min sub. I like to average the subs throughout an imaging session to see how things are going. Throughout the whole session I just was not satisfied because with each new sub, the graininess in the faint areas was just not going away. I averaged the final sub and viola. This one is really in early processing. I need to work on the central area as it was blown out in this quick processing job. Once again, no dark frames or flats have been subtracted.

Lastly, I decided to do some wield field stuff. Mounted my Canon Rebel XTI on my G-11 and shot 10 minute frames from southern horizon to northern horizon for a total of 8 x 10 minute frames. I wish I could put a 50% reduction on here but the site just will not allow such a large file. Click on the image to see all that it would allow me to upload. You can still see a few gems. My favorite is the North American nebula toward image center, almost too small to see in this small image.

More Eclipse Stuff

Spectacular Lunar Eclipse!

What a night! First clear night in Michigan for a while. I had been anticipating the eclipse for a while, but just figured I wouldn't get to see it due to the endless cloud this time of year. I almost forgot about the eclipse completely. Put my daughter to bed around 7:30, made some dinner, took my usual glance out the window to see what the weather was doing. To my surprise, I saw a perfectly clear sky. Then I saw the full moon and jumped into action remembering that this was the night. Got the Sky 90, mount and camera hooked up just in time to take my first image just as the partial eclipse began. Images were taken at multiple exposure settings, throught Tak Sky 90 and Digital Rebel XTI. Partial phases are stacks of 20, total phases are stacks of 30. I'm working on an animation and will hopefully post it within the next few days. Thanks for looking!

Rosette

Old Jupiter Animations

I wanted to put up two animations, but blogger will not let me at this time. This animation was taken about 5 years ago. Over 5 hours worth of images combined into one animation. If I remember correclty I took still frames one after another with my ST-2000XM and 10" LX200 at f/20 for 3 minutes, then waited two more minutes before shooting another 3 minutes worth. So, each individual video frame is a separation of 5 minutes for a total duration of over 5 hours. It was tedious work, but very rewarding. Things start getting fuzzy toward the end as I was trying to go as long as I could while starting to shoot through a tree. My old house used to have a huge tree in the backyard that took up the sky from the zenith to the western horizon. We built our new house in a new subdivision with young trees, so I won't have that problem again anytime soon.

Horsehead & Flame Nebulae

This image was shot the night of December 5th. I was able to capture 3 hours and 20 min of hydrogen alpha data before clouds rolled in. As always, more data is desired. This is my first long exposure image with my new mount, my newly acquired Losmandy G-11. Image was taken through a Takahashi sky 90 with focal reducer, with an SBIG ST-2000 XMI, with CFW8, and astrodon 6nm Ha filter, guided with remote guide head. Sub exposures were 10 minutes in duration for a total exposure of 3 hours and 20 minutes. Images registered and stacked in CCDSoft and further processed in Photoshop.

Holmes Update

Here is my latest attempt at comet Holmes. It was taken the night of November 24th. My first holmes picture was taken throught my 10" LX200 at f/10 with my Canon Digital Rebel XTi. This picture was taken through my Takahashi Sky 90 at f/4.5 and my SBIG ST-2000. Just to give you an idea of how much this thin has grown since it shot out it's expanding cloud of dust, the original image was taken at a focal length of 2500mm and this image was taken at 405mm. Pretty impressive!

Comet Holmes 10/28/07

This photo is a stack of multiple 30 second frames taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi and Meade 10" Lx200 GPS at F/10. Stacked with Registax, very minimal processing in Photoshop. When I adjusted the saturation to bring out more color it made it all look fake so I left it alone. I would love to image this thing again because it keeps growing in size, all I need is some clear skies for a change.

M45, Pleiades

This is my humble attempt at the Pleiades. Taking the images is easy but processing this one is tough. I had some mild reflections from the bright stars. The hardest thing on this one is finding the "true" color balance. I had several different versions and just picked the one that was the most visually pleasing to myself. It is a LRGB combination of 2 hours luminance 1x1 and 1.5 hours each RGB 1x1. Taken with Takahashi Sky 90 piggyback on 10" Lx200 GPS with SBIG ST-2000 XMI with remote guide head and color filter wheel with SBIG LRGB filters.

M33, The Pinwheel

Takahashi Sky 90 piggyback on 10" LX200 GPS with SBIG ST-2000 XMI and remote guide head. Total luminance is 3 hours and 15 minutes 1x1, 1 hour and 30 minutes each RGB each 1x1. Stacked in CCDSoft and processed in Photoshop.

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy

First successful LRGB. I'm Hooked! Luminance 2 hours 45 min, 1 hour 30 min each RGB. Tak Sky 90 and ST-2000.

Cosmic Bubble

6 Hours so far...

Works In Progress

Both could use a lot more light. First we have the veil nebula, followed by the butterfly nebula.

M33, 1 hour 45 min

This is 1 hour and 45 minutes of M33 taken with the Sky 90 at f/4.5 with an st-2000 and SBIG clear filter. Flat and dark reduced and stacked in CCDSoft, further processing in Photoshop. Subframes were 5 minutes each.


Is this gradient (lower left to upper right) typical for light pollution in a widefield image shot in moderate light pollution, or is there something else at work here??? Frames are flat and dark subtracted.

Deer Lick/Quintet and more, 3 hours

This is 3 hours of The Deer Lick Group, Stephen's Quintet, and other misc friends. Could have gone a little longer but was getting the itch to catch some light on M33, see above. Same setup and processing as usual, shot through SBIG clear filter. 5 min subs.