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Eastern Veil Nebula

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Posts Made By: Bob Schnitzer

April 6, 2006 01:54 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Personal best Saturn

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
A rare decent night in Northern Virginia on March 30th. Seeing 5/10. Transparency 2/5. This is a stack of 515 of 1600. Toucam Pro at f18 prime focus of the Royce 16" conical classical cassegrain. Registax and Photoshop Elements processing.
Thanks for looking.

Bob Schnitzer
Grenville Base Observatory
Haymarket, VA

October 10, 2006 01:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

My first Saturn of the season

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
26 degrees up during a rare (for Northern Virginia) moment of average seeing and light haze. 3 point stack of 1100 from 6000. Toucam at prime focus of Royce 16" f18 classical cassegrain. Some Photoshop noise removal, sharpening and light levels. I tried again this morning, but though it was clearer overhead, the low haze in the East was worse.

Cheers,
Bob Schnitzer
Grenville Base Observatory

April 19, 2007 01:34 PM Forum: Telescope Making

Fiberglass tube restoration

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
I thought I would begin restoration of my circa 1980 10" Cassegrain by replacing the Parks tube which is now yellowed, stress-cracked, and filled with unused bolt holes. Being put off by the price Parks now wants for a new tube has put me into restoration mode, but I am not sure how to procede with filling the bolt holes so they won't show through a new paint job. Also, I haven't a clue what the recommended procedure is to restore the surface to a new deep glossy blue. Looking for some experienced help. Thanks.

Bob Schnitzer
Grenville Base Observatory

September 3, 2007 01:33 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

New toy

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
Here is a 2-pic stitch of the Northern Terminator from Friday morning. This was taken with a newly arrived DMK 31AF03.AS with a .5x focal reducer attached to an Orion Starmax 127mm Mak-Cass. This camera is very versatile. When you run out of Lunar or Planetary targets, you can switch right over to deepsky. I'm waiting for seeing to improve so I can get better results with the 16" f18 Dall-Kirkham.

September 3, 2007 02:35 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

New toy joy

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
I'm posting this not because it's such a fine image, but just because it was done with the same camera as the moon pano and I was able to home in on Pluto in minutes. This is a particular treat for anyone who has spent an hour squinting sideways at the eyepiece to identify which of the hundred mag 14 stars in the field of view is a planet. I'm not trying to sell DMK cameras here, but I have to say it was a fun evening.

September 14, 2007 01:50 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 9-13-07

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
It's soooo good to have clear skies again. This was taken this morning at 7:50 UT with a toucam on the 16" f18 Dall-Kirkham. A scopetronics 1.6x multiplier was used. Best 300 of 2000. Seeing could have been better for this target but I'm happy with the final result.

This and another image are also posted in the 'latest images' section of the website below.

Cheers,

September 19, 2007 02:42 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Mars 9-18-07

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
Here is an f29 mono image of the boring side of Mars taken with the DMK 31AF03.AS in conjunction with a Scopetronix 1.6x Maxpower lens and an IR longpass filter. best of 1200 images. The image could use a little noise tweaking in PS3.


September 30, 2007 02:03 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

High Dynamic Range (HDR)

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
Just a quick reminder to all the imagers who struggle with the low dynamic range of the video cameras we typically use for planetary images: Adobe Photoshop CS2 and CS3 have an HDR function which allows the merging of multiple images of varying exposures in order to get a single image that captures detail at both ends of the EV range. I have just begun experimenting with this and you can visit my website for a brief tutorial and example.

There are also HDR software packages available that work independantly of Photoshop. One of these is called Photomatix. It has more user controllable features for fine tuning the final image.

Cheers,


October 29, 2007 06:11 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Another Holmes 17p from Sunday night

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
This was taken with an Orion Starmax 5" Mak-Cas and a DMK 31AF03.AS camera. About 100 exposures from 4 streams. Exposures varying in lengths between 6 and 30 seconds.

Cheers,


April 19, 2008 03:16 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Storm on Saturn

Posted By Bob Schnitzer
I'm not positive, but I think I'm picking up a storm on Saturns disk. This shot was from tonight, about 25 minutes ago actually.

TIS DBK21AF04,AS with 2x Barlow. Stack of about 250 of 1200.

Cheers

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