Posts Made By: Louis Busby

Works on all types of telescopes and will accept multi-fuels.

Enjoy
Scott

I just started playing with my ST2000XM and thought I would give M33 a try. My expectations were low given my first use of the camera, but I was pleasantly surprised with the result.

M33
Tak TSA102 on G-11 unguided
Sbig ST2000XM
10X120s stacked in Registax
Finished in PSv.7

I literally spent the better part of a day working on this LRGB of M42. Original exposures were L: 10X60s and RGB: 10X60s each. In the end, I had to add a separate Lum layer at 50% opacity to more correctly address a color imbalance and add detail at the core w/PS CS2. I could not separate the Trapezium because I was already maxed on the white level stretch Log(x). Is there a way to resolve this issue?

Anyway, I'm still practicing. Scope used was a Tak TSA102 w/ST2000XM and Atik CFW

Cheers,
Scott Busby

I was scrambling to get some imaging done last night before the Moon came up. It was quite clear and weather threatened to bring clouds. I set to work to get a color (LRGB) shot of M1 while waiting for M42 to clear the trees. I was able to get a fair amount of Luminance frames, but the rising Moon threatened to cut my color frames short. I was able to get 90s each of RGB frames before the Moon and some passing clouds made decent imaging impossible.

L=11m, R=90s, G=90s, B=90s
Takahashi TSA102/Losmandy G-11/SBIG ST2000XM
CCDSoft, Photoshop CS2

Scott Busby

I've used them for some small items. I have no issues with them and will probably do business with them in the future.

Scott

Is there such a thing as a 2" adapter for the FS60C? If so, what's it called (nomenclature) and where would I find one?

Scott

The Horsehead is a difficult nebula to photograph for me. This shot was taken with a Takahashi TSA102 on a G-11 mount manually guided. Exposure was 1 hour in Ha. Post-processed in K3CCDtools and CS2/fits Liberator.

Takahashi FS60C/G-11/ST2000XM (unguided) 10X60 sec Ha


LSB

The attached image is 4 CS2 screen shots of my initial image processing steps for M51. In the first shot, I've opened a single fits frame in the Fits Liberator Plugin for Photoshop. The default shows the linear stretch function and the histogram is slewed far left.

The second shot shows my first adjustment by changing the stretch fuction to Log(x) which places the histogram in the center of the scale. My first question is what is happening to the histogram on the left side causing the comb efect?

In the third shot, I've repositioned the black and white point sliders to the ends of the histogram curve making sure to stay within the solid part of the curve. I'm assuming the the comb effect is data loss or no data.

The fourth image shows the resultant frame after I've closed the Fits Liberator. After this, I take all the resultant images which are now saved as tiffs and align and stack them in either registax or K3CCDTools. K3CCDTools seems to me to do the better job of alignment and stacking so I usually use it.

Each frame exposure was 60 sec with a total of 73 frames taken. After alignment and stacking, I continue to process the result in CS2 by adjusting the gradient, curves, and levels in that order until I arrive at a pleasing image. Most of the time I will revisit curves and levels to increase appeal.

In the following Post, I've included the final processed image of M51. So, does my processing sequence make since? Am I doing this all wrong or out of sequence? Do the histograms point to an error in my data capture other than perhaps under exposing?

Please, some pointers from you experienced imagers.

Thanks Scott

I can't compete with the big mirror guys, but I tried anyway.

Sunday, 11 Mar offered some fantastic seeing, rare for Northern VA. I endeavored to image Saturn with my newly acquired Takahashi TOA 130, 5x barlow and a ToUcam Pro II webcam. Attached find a test run from a group of images I was able to capture before high clouds stole the night. Image is a stack of 826/1104 frames. Stack program was K3CCDTools and I finished up with Photoshop CS2.