Posts Made By: Floyd Blue

If I thought that any of the candidates could actually pull the country out of this financial pit it has fallen into, I would vote for them regardless of party.
If there was just one real plan that would take away the deficit that we have with China that would do. Or if someone had a plan that could get the oil production back where it should be here in the USA, I would back them. Heck, if they had some way to force OPEC into getting real I would be giddy.
There needs to be a major overhaul of the whole system and that is not going to happen. There are too many powerful people that are getting quite rich that will not let it happen. A president can not make change themselves, they have to have all of Congress behind their every move, which is laughable! There are too many people handing too much money to congressmen and Senators making sure that they go the direction they wish them too.
What needs to be done is to bring the USA back to the people, not the officials. We can vote to pass something, but some judge just decides that we the people do not know what we need and reverses our decision. That needs to stop. The government is for the people, by the people and not to control the people.
If there was a way to clean house and make changes that would limit income by elected officials, bar them from taking money from companies for any reason and have term limits so that they can not entrench themselves so deeply that they must die to be removed, that would help.

For those of us that use the manual filter wheels, one of the problems is that the wheel is open where you push to move the wheel to change filters. This allows dirt and dust to get into the wheel and onto the filters. I have been thinking about a solution for a while and came up with a simple one.
I used self adhesive felt and foam available at Walmart in 8x11" sheets for about $1 each.
This stuff sticks very well and is easy to cut an apply.
Removing the front cover gives access to apply the felt and foam.
Place one strip on the inside of the front cover so that when the cover is installed, the wheel rubs against it.
Cut a piece to fit the opening on the other half and use a second piece to make it thicker and act as a rubbing seal. Then I place a small strip of the rubber foam below the felt to force the felt upward against the wheel, keeping a small amount of pressure on the flap.
Next I added two small flaps at each end of the opening, where there were two small gaps. I put a piece of toilet paper on 1/3 the length to cover the adhesive and the stuck the flaps to the body of the filter wheel. This paper keeps the adhesive from sticking to the wheel when the wheel is rotated.
The filter wheel is now sealed and with the TV focal reducer on the front, there is nowhere for dust to enter the filter wheel. A clear filter would also work fine for this.
A simple solution to a big problem. 8)

Well, in my never ending trek to find the best processing methods, I have once again attempted to use another program with another process for stacking and aligning subs.
This time I used AIP4WIN Ver2 using Sigma Clip average stack on my Markarian Chain data files. I did this to see if I could get rid of one annoying thing that I kept seeing after stacking, small black spots in dim stars, like gaps.
So, I ran all the subs through AIP4WIN and came up with this, which I find to be superior in a few ways.
I would like to know what you guys think about the color, detail and fine point on stars.

Hi all, here is the latest shot taken last night.
R = 40 min G = 40 min B = 40 min L = 120 min x 6 minute subs
This was a quick combine and process. I think I can do a little better really.

Hi Everyone,

I have gotten some comments about how smooth my background is getting and how my processing is improving. I thought I would share a little of what I am learning. Bear with me if you already know all about this, I am just learning. 8)

I just thought I would say a little about curves in Photoshop and why
they are helpful as well as better for most stretching of the data.

First off, a curve can be applied several times as needed without
destroying detail or blowing out the center of a galaxy or cluster.

Then, it is a better method of controlling the stretch, as you do it
in more ways than a simple stretch.

I find that the curve is getting me closer to what I think I want to
see from a sub. I can change the curve slightly from the standard
during the final application of the curve to attain some nuance of
tone or detail that I think is there.

The standard curve is the beginning and then a modified curve can
finish when the standard is too much.

Also, balancing the background is really important, otherwise you end
up with a color noise, from one or more colors.

Over stretching is the most common mistake that I see in post
processing. We all are guilty of trying to get more out of a sub than
is actually there. This is a definite no no!

Good filters are also the key to color balance. Try to get the best
you can when you buy filters. Of course you have to stay within
budget, but a good shopper can find a deal! :^)

Stacking is another place where much improvement can be made. Culling
the bad subs from the stack gives you the cleanest data. So if it does
not look good, dump it! The stacking method used by the program is
also a big deal. Try several of the choices to see what does the best
job. Try different programs if you get a chance, especially if they
give a trial version for free. I am beginning to believe that AIP4Win
V2 is one of the best that I have used so far and it is a reasonable
price and comes with a great book too! What a deal!

I do what is for me a standard stretch in FITS Liberator. This is
setting the black point to 100 and then the white point at the end of
the data. I try to set RGB at the same white and black point, usually
100 and 30,000, but it depends on the object.
The luminance I set the black point to 100 and the white to 65,000.

I use the standard curve that Ron Wodaski shows, which is two points
equally spaced across, with the second point down and a straight line
between the second and the top. Hope that makes sense. I could take a
screen shot of it possibly.

Then I will stretch the data with the center slider in the histogram
if needed. I always take it to the end of the slope and then slide the
left slider to set the back ground to 91 k on RGBL subs before I start
to do any other adjustments. I never clip the black point to achieve
this and will leave a little space between the slope foot and the left
side of the histogram. Then I will adjust the final black point if
needed after all other post processing is complete.

Background noise is caused by too much stretching as much as anything.
But Carboni Actions, Deep Space Noise Reduction, will help if there is
some residual noise. I try not to use it unless I have to, preferring
to set the histogram to get rid of the noise. So if you slide the
histogram slider too far and noise develops, just slide it back to the
right until the noise is gone. If you need more stretch, then you
actually need more exposures or longer ones. This is how I keep the
noise down and the background color or darkness just the way I want it.
Hope this helps.
Floyd

Hi all,
I thought I would share this image that I did on Friday night as the LAAS site. Hope you like it, I was very pleased with the results.

M13
DSI III Pro, TV .8 focal reducer, WO 80mm F/6 APO Triplet, G-11 Gemini, Autoguided.
RGB = 30 minutes each subs 4 minutes.

No luminance was used as this is a technique that I learned about that works well on Clusters.

http://www.astrophotogallery.org/showphoto.php?photo=201
Here is a link to the full res picture.
RGB = 6min x 7 each l = 6 min x 20
DSI III Pro Astronomik filters

I am going out with my observing partner tonight to a private site nearby. I plan on just doing the two clusters, M3 and M5. This choice is due to the fact that I can do globular clusters in just 1.5 hours. Makes for a quick shot and a productive night. Might do a little more than 1.5 hours if all goes well. 8)

M3 http://www.astrophotogallery.org/showphoto.php/photo/216
M5 http://www.astrophotogallery.org/showphoto.php/photo/215
These are links to the full res shots, both taken last night. Hope you like them.

The Meade 127ED is a nice scope with good performance, flat field and little color. The focuser is a little flaky though, but serviceable. The finder sucks, but that is not a big deal. I got a Wyorock focuser custom made for mine, there is a Moonlite focuser that is also great.
If you can find one with a replacement focuser, it is a very good scope and for the money a great deal.
The TV 102 is a nice scope, with a good focuser, nice case and nice build. Nothing bad that I know of and the performance is good.
Aperture rules, but the thing is, which do you like better.
I have the Meade 127ED and I like it.