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| M4 Globular Cluster Meade LS 8 ACF w/F6.3 Reducer Meade DSI II Color Imager 10x11.3 Sec Exposures Envisage/DSS/PS |
Thursday, July 28, 2011
M4 Globular Cluster
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Lunar Terminator and Clavius
Meade LS 8 ACF @f6.3
Meade DSI II Color Imager
100 images, taken w/Envisage, stacked and processed in Registax
Sunday morning at dawn. The waxing gibbous moon perched high in the sky, with bright Jupiter as its companion less then 10 degrees away. What a beautiful sight the lunar landscape proved to be at this hour. The image doesn't equal the magnificence of the view I had at the eyepiece. As the Sun rose, the craterlets in the crater Clavius began to be illuminated at their peaks, forming crescents themselves, which are only hinted in the image above. From the lower most crescent, a straight line formed, creating almost a pitch fork shape. The deep floor of Clavius, mostly dark in shadow, was beginning to be nicely framed as the mountainous peaks of the crater wall lit up with the sunlight all the way around. I was simply mesmerized by the view, a wonderful morning indeed at the eyepiece.
Monday, July 25, 2011
M27 - Dumbbell Nebula in Vibrant Color
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| M27 Dumbbell Nubula Taken on 7/24/2011 Meade LS 8 ACF w/f6.3 Reducer 15x11.3 sec Exposures Taken w/Envisage, stacked in DSS, Processed in Nebulosity |
Yes, perhaps this is a bit over processed, but I like the colors. Either way, I am very pleased with my first attempt at the Dumbbell Nebula! The original image was exciting, but I decided to give a program called Nebulosity a try, and I'm glad I did. The program has a lot of functions, most of which I have no idea yet what they do yet, but the image above speaks for itself in my humble opinion. Astrophotography has a steep learning curve, make no mistake about it. I have barely scratched the surface, and the processing alone on the above image took me most of my Sunday to test this and that before I was satisfied. I'm not saying I've been completely bit by the astrophotography bug, but I'm at least spending about 50% of my time now imaging vs. direct visual observing. I find myself torn now between wanting the simple enjoyment of visual observing versus capturing the objects photographically so the whole word can see for themselves the beauty that lies in the universe, if you just take the time to look up.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy & SN 2011dh
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M10 - Meade LS 8 ACF and DSI II imager
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M10 - Globular Cluster in Ophiuchus Meade LS 8 ACF @ f6.3 Meade DSI II 7 x 11.3 sec exposures Envisage, DSS, PhotoShop for curves and levels, then contrast and shadow adjustments in Picasa |
I was rather pleasantly surprised on how this image turned out. I am having some difficulty using DeepSky Stacker (DSS), it has a hard time stacking my FITS images for some reason. I have had to use Envisage to not only acquire, but then to view the FITS images as well to try and determine which ones could be problematic, then deselect those in DSS to finally get a good stack. I'm pleased with this so far, and very happy with how my focus is turning out while using the Bahtinov Mask.
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