Author Topic: Geek Alert: first astrophoto attempts (Read 2087 times)

CptTrips · « **Reply #30 on:** August 19, 2003, 10:39:19 AM »

Quote

Have you processed the photo in any way? (apart from stacking).

Thanks for the kind remarks. Oh yeah, its heavily processed. I've tried a couple of deconvolution algorithms on it but with varying results. Van Cittert , Richardson-Lucy, Maximum entropy, etc. I use Registax for the rough stacking but do all my processing in ImagesPlus.

I'm doing a little write up for a friend of mine of my step by step processing. If you can wait a few days I'll post it for you. Also I think I can improve the third image further by combining more than 1 AVI. This one was only a single 40 sec AVI. I should be able to combine up to about 5 min worth before the rotation smear outweighs the signal improvement.

Btw, if you haven't seen it,you might find this interesting:

Wab

Ripsnort · « **Reply #31 on:** August 19, 2003, 11:00:42 AM »

Wab, my sons and I are interested in amateur star gazing, but have no equipment or experience, other than a very dark backyard in the wilderness with no city lights

Whats a good starting point as far as telescopes go? I don't want to invest alot of money, but I don't want to go so cheap that binoculars would be better, if you know what I mean...

Gremlin · « **Reply #32 on:** August 19, 2003, 12:10:54 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Ripsnort
Wab, my sons and I are interested in amateur star gazing, but have no equipment or experience, other than a very dark backyard in the wilderness with no city lights Whats a good starting point as far as telescopes go? I don't want to invest alot of money, but I don't want to go so cheap that binoculars would be better, if you know what I mean...

Rip,

You have definitely got the right idea. Most scopes on the cheap end of the scale are just plastic 'toys' and are far surpassed by a good pair of binoculars. Actually you'd be amazed at what you can see in a clear dark sky with a pair of binoculars. After all binoculars are simply two telescopes strapped together!! If budget is an issue a good pair of 10x50 binoculars together with a book like, 'Exploring the night sky with binoculars' by Sir Patrick Moore (thats what got me started). The cheaper scopes are just so useless that they actually can cause a young person to lose interest in the subject. Thats the biggest shame of all. So the bino/book combo would be a wise starting point. If you have a few more bucks to play with proper telescopes start at around $350 for a 6 inch reflector but another $100 will get you an 8 inch scope and far better satisfaction. Of course the price tag keeps going up for bigger and better but the real nice thing about scopes is they hold their value if they are maintained properly. i.e. never wash the optics, only in a strictly controlled prescribed manner which you can find on many websites. I bought my first real telescope for 500 Irish Pounds and almost two years later sold it for 450 pounds.

I can assure you satisfaction if you follow the above. Even if you have to invest a bit more of the hard earned bucks than you hoped, you can be assured that you will be giving your son the gift of astronomy for life. Its something that gets into your blood and never goes away.

If you are considering a particular product please let us know here and i'm sure wab and/or me will be happy to look up the specs and give you our 2 cents worth.

Ripsnort · « **Reply #33 on:** August 19, 2003, 12:18:19 PM »

Thks Gremlin! Will keep in touch with you regarding this.

CptTrips · « **Reply #34 on:** August 19, 2003, 01:38:26 PM »

Just so you can see waht post processing can do....

Here is a sample single average frame from my AVI.

So you can see there was quite a bit of post processing done to get this:

Wab

Gremlin · « **Reply #35 on:** August 20, 2003, 07:29:56 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by AKWabbit
Here is a sample single average frame from my AVI.

Hmm, interesting. Im wondering it there isnt a whole pile of chromatic abberation in the original unprocessed image. That purplish halo looks a lot like it to me. Problem is even if it is there's SFA you can do about it short of removing the optics from your camcorder!! I've seen some pretty good photos taken by stacking from a simple webcam!! I gotta give that a go!! At least with a webcam taking a screwdriver and removing the optics is not such a big issue!!

Amazing work Wab!! Cant wait to see more

CptTrips · « **Reply #36 on:** August 20, 2003, 08:23:00 AM »

I think this is the best I can do with this data set...

Slightly less contrast but I think its pulling in a bit more structure.

Gremlin, Feel free to share these (which ever you prefer) with whom ever you like.

That raw frame, and these last two good Mars were taken with a modified toUcam/Televue 2.5 powermate combination with a IR blocking filter.

There was definitely some chromatic aberration. But not NEARLY as bad with the DV cam. I was able to handle the chromatic aberration by splitting the color channels and realigning them. THe overall pinkishness was a simple color balance issue (maybe from the IR filter?) I was able to fix by increasing the relative strength of the green channel when recombining the RGB.

Anyway, tonight I'll sit down and detail my capturing techniques, equipment and processing steps. Got too busy twiddling pixels last night.

regards,
Wab

Mini D · « **Reply #37 on:** August 20, 2003, 09:17:06 AM »

liquid shock granite support wab. Should be able to get something for around $10,000. Then build breeze shields around the scope. With a stable platform, any open space around optics will affect it.

I may not know much about astronomy, but I do know about keeping optics stable.

MiniD

LePaul · « **Reply #38 on:** August 20, 2003, 10:25:38 AM »

It easy to spend a lot of money on telescopes...i wish id had the resources to go up to the $400~ish range for the motorized models....i beleive the scopes you are toying with are well over a grand? Impressive stuff

CptTrips · « **Reply #39 on:** August 21, 2003, 08:44:53 PM »

Gremlin,

Here is some information and links I put together for a friend of mine. Some of it might interest you.

_____________________________ ______________________

Mars Notes

I. Equipment

12” Meade LX200 GPS
Toucam Pro w/adaptor (http://www.scopetronix.com)
Kendrick Kwik Focus Hartman Mask
Televue 2.5x PowerMate
IR blocking filter

II. Software

Registax 2.0 for rough stacking:
http://aberrator.astronomy.net/registax )

K3CCDTools for webcam capture: http://www.pk3.org/Astro/index.htm?software_k3ccdtools_2webcams.htm )

ImagesPlus for processing:
http://www.mlunsold.com

III. Capture:

1.   Put in Webcam/adapter/PowerMate/IR filter in eyepiece holder.
2.   Point to bright star near Mars.
3.   Center in laptop screen.
4.   Rough focus with Hartman mask.
5.   Lock mirror.
6.   Set display mode on K3CCDTools to 2x mode
7.   Fine focus with motofocus until 3 star images exactly overlap.
8.   Set display mode on K3CCDTools to 1x mode
9.   Slew to Mars. Remove Hartman mask
10.   Capture sequence of AVI’s up to 5 min in length.
11.   Capture as near to transit as possible.

IV. Processing:

1.   Stack AVI in Registax. AutoOptimize, Resample 2x, quality > 95%, etc.
2.   Save result as BMP
3.   Load into ImagePlus
4.   Split into RGB channels
5.   Realign and recombine channels
6.   Ajust color balance if necessary
7.   Resample 0.3-0.5x
8.   Various other processing steps to increase constrast and sharpen (adjust to taste).

V. Misc Links

http://astrosurf.com/cidadao/super.htm
http://perso.club-internet.fr/legault/
http://www.astroimaging.com/tips.htm
http://www.ricksastro.com/Techniques.htm
http://www.cloudynights.com/astrophotography/toucam.htm
http://www.webcam-astrophotography.com/

CptTrips · « **Reply #40 on:** August 22, 2003, 12:02:09 AM »

Gremlin · « **Reply #41 on:** August 22, 2003, 10:07:49 AM »

Hey thanks for those Wab, some look familiar others dont, I'll look forward to browsing those over the weekend.

Thx bud:)

CptTrips · « **Reply #42 on:** August 24, 2003, 09:55:45 AM »

An interesting comparison......

http://webpages.charter.net/JasonIrby/astro_pics/2003_08_16/mars6.jpg

Mini D · « **Reply #43 on:** August 24, 2003, 10:07:33 AM »

Do they have pics of Mars from the hubble? Curious to see how well that scope does.

MiniD

CptTrips · « **Reply #44 on:** August 24, 2003, 10:14:53 AM »

Yes, but I don't think its fair to hold me to quite the same standard.

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2001/24/images/a/formats/full_jpg.jpg

Wab