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M20 Trifid Nebula in LRGBHa

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Posts Made By: Alec Hitchman

July 7, 2006 08:28 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Imaging options with Mr. Moon in the way

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

What are the best options for imaging deep sky when the moon is smiling on us with it's silvery glow?

Should I keep to my short f-ratios and use a nebular filter?

Of course, I could do the narrowband stuff (H-a, for example)?

Would it be beneficial to get my f-ratio back to normal (f/10) and work on some globulars or perhaps bright planetaries with a larger image scale?

Also, will the longer focal length allow me to go "deeper" without washing out my background? Or will the longer exposures needed make it an even proposition?

Thanks for your comments and help!

Keith

July 11, 2006 04:32 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Flailing away at NGC7331

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

I tried to take some time and apply some of the lessons that R. Scott Ireland presents in his book "Photoshop Astronomy". All of the faults in this image are a result of my poor application of the lesson subjects, and should not reflect poorly on what is an excellent image processingn book.

I stacked just about every halfway reasonable image I had of NGC7331, at least 3 hours worth probably closer to 4 hours. Some were out of focus slightly, which might have been detrimental.

Massaged in Photoshop CS, Nebulosity and Stellar Magic Pro.

I certainly have a way to go...tried to fix my gradients, and ended up with a large scale snakeskin background. The galaxy ended up looking like something airbrushed on the side of a conversion van due to an application of deconvolution.....not too natural. :S

Practice, practice, practice. smile

Thanks for looking, and critiques are greatly appreciated.

July 26, 2006 08:09 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Separate cameras for luminance and RGB

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello,

I recently aquired a Starlight Xpress MX716 to replace my DSI Pro. Unfortunately, I don't have the RGB filters for it yet.

Does anyone think that using the MX716 for luminance, and then using my Orion Starshoot for RGB data, would give me acceptable results?

The MX716's grayscale sensor has a 752x580 array of 8.6 x 8.3 pixels. The Starshoot's Bayer matrix sensor has a 752x582 array of 6.5 x 6.5 pixels. Will these differences make my job harder if I want to combine data from these cameras?

Thanks for the input!

Keith

August 10, 2006 05:24 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

First Light with MX716 camera

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello,

Recently purchased a used MX716 on Astromart, and gave it a try last night. It is much more sensitive than either my DSI Pro or my Starshoot, so it should be fun.

Still trying to work out the wrinkles in using the new camera, but I did try a couple of shots in H-alpha (full moon) using my WO Zenithstar 66SD with an Atik 0.5x focal reducer. Methinks that I had some sagging in my optical train, due to the field not being flat, especially noticable at the top of the frame.

Autoguided with the DSI Pro through my LX200 at f/10, so my guiding was to a tighter tolerance than normal.

The images are still a bit noisy, and there are some dead pixels that I need to map and remove, but I still think that this old camera has a lot of life yet.

Would appreciate any feedback from other users or Starlight Express MX-series cameras, as this is a bit more fidgety than my DSI Pro and Starshoot.

First shot is Caldwell 20 (12x5min), second is Caldwell 9 (25x5min).
Clearskies all.

August 14, 2006 12:07 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Cropped Pelican

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

Another H-alpha taken with my new Mx716. I nixed the Atik focal reducer for this shot, and to make up for the longer focal ratio (f/5.9 with my ZS66SD), increased my subs to 10 minutes. My polar alignment was very poor, and I had quite a bit of field rotation, so this imaged is cropped as much as possible.

Gotta do something about my hot/dead pixels.

Thanks for looking!

Keith

August 16, 2006 03:55 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

California Nebula H-alpha

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Here is a go at the California Nebula. Had to use my Atik reducer, so my field curvature is baaaccckkk!

Total of 30 five minute subs, autoguided.

Keith

August 19, 2006 06:24 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

What a great hobby!

Posted By Alec Hitchman
All,

This is now the 3rd or 4th time this week I have stayed up as much as I can to do narrowband imaging.

My wife asks how I can operate with such a minimum of sleep....I don't know about everyone else, but it is a real adrenaline rush when things come together:

Focus...perfect (stars at about 1.5 to 1.8 FWHM)
Guiding...dead on (errors no more than 50% of imaging pixel scale)
Length of sub...>7 minutes, no field rotation
Subject...perfectly framed!

I was ready for a nap, but when that first sub downloaded, I got my second wind.

Now, I am doing my H-alpha imaging at the easy short focal lengths (355mm), but it sure is fun and exciting, nevertheless!

Woohoo!

Keith

August 21, 2006 04:10 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Noisy H-alpha of M31

Posted By Alec Hitchman
I didn't want to take my assembly apart while waiting for my next target, so I slewed to M31 to take some "target of opportunity" shots.

This is about 50 minutes total exposure (300 sec subs). It is noisy because I am using the Sigma Reject Combine plugin to deal with my hot pixels......

Can anyone else see the very faint bright spots in the dust lanes? They appear to be emission nebulae or something.............

August 21, 2006 04:13 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

IC1318 portion, in H-alpha

Posted By Alec Hitchman
I thought that I would try 10 minute subs, but my guiding was a bit off....also noisier than you might expect, because I have to use Sigma Reject Combine for my stacking (still working on a bad pixel map). The average combine looks better, if not for the hot pixel streaks....

This is a sum of 7 images taken in H-alpha at f/5.9 using the ZS66SD.

Thanks for looking!

September 4, 2006 01:44 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Noisy Ha Shots

Posted By Alec Hitchman
Hello,

Finally got a break from moving into the new house, and took a couple of photos in Ha. There is a lot of smoke and haze from the Columbia Complex fire, so these are noisy, despite being 10 minute subs with the MX716 on the ZS80FD using WO 0.8x reducer.

My guiding was a little off, as well.

First up is IC 410.

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