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VdB 141 Ghost Nebula

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Posts Made By: Roland Christen

September 27, 2016 10:54 PM Forum: Landscape Photography

Caterpillar transformation

Posted By Roland Christen
Our natural prairie outside our AP factory produced a bonus this year. We had monarchs laying eggs and saw a number of caterpillars on the milkweed plants. Upon reading up, it turns out that these caterpillars have only a 1% to 5% chance of survival before turning into butterflies. Monarchs are endangered, and especially this year the number has crashed dramatically.

So we gathered what we could find and brought them in. They are voracious eaters and consumed a lot of milkweed leaves before finally forming a chrysalis. About a weeks later (this morning) two of the 4 finally emerged as beautiful butterflies. The other two will probably emerge tomorrow.

Here are some pix.

Rolando

October 5, 2016 07:34 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Double Cluster quick snapshot

Posted By Roland Christen
Hi All,

Had a few minutes last night to do a real quickie image before clouds rolled in. This is an example of the ultimate lazy man's astrophotography, no guiding, just point and shoot. I simply attached my STL camera on the back of my 6" refractor, sent the mount to the Double Cluster, focused and shot a few 10 second unguided images. Combined the RGB's and Luminance into a color image. If I had a color camera it would have been even easier.

So what can you get for 5x10 second exposures? Lots of red, white and blue stars. Very patriotic, dontcha think?

Rolando



Rolando

October 20, 2016 01:36 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Cocoon Nebula

Posted By Roland Christen
Clear night last night so: Have Telescope Will shoot grin

https://www.buytelescopes.com/content/images/thumbs/97e9699c4ef235af9aa62593ea712a20c67ed3ea_cocoon-nebula.jpg

November 5, 2016 09:35 PM Forum: Astro-Physics

Guide cable construction

Posted By Roland Christen
For all our CP1,2,3 and 4 servos the guide cable for SBIG cameras is shown in the attached picture.

Rolando

November 11, 2016 12:48 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Thor's Helmet

Posted By Roland Christen
Thor's Helmet remotely imaged by Howard Hedlund, from our remote site at Las Campanas, Chile, with the AP 12" F8 astrograph. Processed by Dave Jurasevich. 29x1200 second exposures Ha-OIII bicolor image.

Rolando

November 11, 2016 03:02 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Sculptor Dwarf Galaxy ESO 351-30

Posted By Roland Christen
An intriguing object, this very faint galaxy is a companion to our own Milky Way. Located in the constellation of Sculptor it was found relatively recently in 1937. The stars are very faint and spread out.

24x900 sec Luminance and 17x600 RGB, AP 12" F8 Astrograph at Las Campanas. This image is the result of a collaborative effort between Howard Hedlund of Astro-Physics, Inc. and Dave Jurasevich.

December 2, 2016 05:44 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M1 Crab nebula from Chile

Posted By Roland Christen
https://buytelescopes.com/content/images/thumbs/dc8eddf963be71d6981f8134492003604bdf033d_m1-crab-nebula.jpg

This image of the crab nebula was taken from below the equator down in Chile at our remote site at Las Campanas with the AP 12" F8 Astrograph. It’s a Ha/OIII composition assigning Ha to the red channel, OIII to the blue channel, and synthesizing the green channel with a combination of the two. Exposure time Ha 23 x 1200 sec, OIII 25 x 1200 sec for a total exposure time of 16 hours.

M1 is a far north object that does not rise very high in the sky in Chile, and this image shows just how pristine the skies are in the Chilean Andes mountains even for objects that are near the horizon. Image capture by Howard Hedlund of AP, image processing by Dave Jurasevich.

May 31, 2017 11:06 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

Galaxies in Leo

Posted By Roland Christen
Galaxies in Leo are now heading to the western horizon. The weather finally broke enough to get a few shots of this interesting grouping, NGC3187 and other small galaxies in Leo.

AP 17" F8 Astrograph on 1600 mount, STL11K camera. 25x5 minute Lum, 20x5 minute RGB.

Rolando

June 1, 2017 11:24 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Moon from last night

Posted By Roland Christen
First quarter Moon May 31. 2 frame mosaic using 17" F8 Astrograph. Each frame is a single 1/10 sec exposure, processed in MaximDL.

Rolando

June 3, 2017 10:04 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Deep Sky

M101

Posted By Roland Christen
This large galaxy has a huge brightness range, which makes it a challenge to process. I once saw a Palomar glass plate of this object which showed the huge range quite well, because negative film has a non-linear response at the very bright end.
I posted this shot that I did last night as a negative. It shows the very faint extensions better than a normal image. It also brings back memories of the old film days before CCDs. Note the numerous tiny background galaxies.

AP 17" F8 Astrograph
STL11K camera
40 x 5 minute Luminance
AP1600 mount

Rolando

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