Posts Made By: Steven Jindra

I am considering purchasing a Meade LX50 with the Magellan II encoders installed, but no computer. Does anyone know if the Magellan II encoders are compatable with an Orion Sky Wizard Version 2 computer that I already have? If so, will the cabling match up?

Thanks for any input.
Steven Jindra

I currently have MaximDL/CCD V4.10 and recently purchased Adobe Photoshop Elements 3 ($59.99 before a $20 rebate). PS Elements 3 seems to have a number of great tools, will handle 16 bit images, and says it will accept Photoshop CS plugins. I don't think it has the more powerful curves features though.

Is anyone else using this software to enhance astrophotos? If so what are the pros and cons?

I'll try to add comments once I install it and get more familiar.

Thanks
Steven Jindra

This is M16, the Eagle Nebule, taken Saturday night in the heavily light polluted skies of the Houston area. It is my first image with the new (to me) FS-128.
Details:
SXV-H9 monochrome imager
FS-128 with focal reducer to F6
SXV guider (on Borg 76ED with Meade focal reducer to F2.2)
Astronomik Ha filter
Celestron CI-700 mount
12 each - 5 minute images, Sigma Combined in MaximDL. I tried a few stretches (linear and Gamma), but saw no improvement, so I left the image as-is except to crop it.

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks
Steven Jindra

My youngest daughter (17 years old) and I are planning to do a little bird/nature viewing and photography. Initially we will be viewing and photographing first and identifying later - perhaps with this groups help at times. We have a nature center and a few parks within 30 minutes from the house.

We have a pair of 12x36 Canon IS and a pair of Minolta 7x50 binoculars. She's taken over my wifes Nikon camera (film) and I'm buying a zoom digital camera for me.

My main question: Does the new Sony DSC-H1 digital camera (12X Zoom with image stabalization) seem like a good choice for $475. I favor the Sony since I already have a compatible 1Gig memory card for my little pocket camera I can use. Or is there a great advantage (along with double the cost) of going the Digital SLR's (Canon, Nikon, etc.)?

Any other pointers are appreciated.

Thanks
Steven Jindra
Deer Park, Texas (next to Houston)

I'm considering purchasing a new William Optics Zenithstar 66, 400mm at F6.1, Petzval design ED semi-APO refractor for wide field imaging. At $298 (WA-ZS-66T) from Anacortes, it seems like a possible lower cost alternative to the FS-60C and TV 60. My imager is the SXV-H9 and I am primarily considering it for H-alpha (nebula not Solar) imaging.

What about using a Meade .63 focal reducer for 254mm at F3.84?

Any thoughts or comments are welcome.

Thanks

Ho-Hum, Just Another, Yet Another, A Few More.....
These and other similar terms are in the titles of a many of the images posted here. These terms are often to indicate humility in comparison to other beautiful images already posted of the same objects.

I would like to state that I appreciate the variety of different images, each highlighting varied facets of the same object. They also help demonstrate the capabilities of any number of hardware setups and software techniques, as well as the progress of the imager himself. Constructive suggestions on such images are also helpful. Since I am under highly light polluted skies, I always appreciate any image taken under similar conditions and am careful to review the hardware, the methods and the technical details given. Images posted here give a reality to the sky charts and often serve as list for current challenging targets available.

There are numerous images posted in this forum, many of the same objects. What do you look for in each? What do you appreciate about each? How do you benefit?

Between hurricanes Katrina and Rita many have had opportunities to offer or receive kindnesses. Do you have any Good Samaitan type stories to share? I'll start with mine.

My wife and I evacuated for Hurricane Rita from Deer Park, Texas (just E of Houston) arriving at our motel in Decatur, Texas (NW of Fort Worth) Wednesday evening. My oldest daughter called at 9pm saying she and her husband were on I-10 West in Houston stuck in heavy traffic. At 6am Thursday she called again, this time in tears, their car dead on I-10 in Katy (about 20 miles W of Houston) and her cell phone was getting weaker. I contacted a friend from our religion in San Antonio. He had a phone list and provided the number of a "brother" in Katy. The gentleman answered, said my daughter and her husband were only about 1/4 mile away, that he would go get them, they could stay at his home, and would have their car cared for. Within an hour they were safely at his home and enjoyed his family's hospitality for the next few days before returning home on Saturday. This provided great relief for a father some 300 miles away.

Thanks
Steven Jindra

I have been using MaximDL/CCD 4.11 for image capture, sigma combining, and initial editing. But so far I have been having difficulty finding just the right adjustments to bring out the fine details in nebulae and galaxies and yet keep the brighter areas from dominating the image.

I'd love to have the newest Photoshop CS2, but the price tag ($599) is a little prohibitive at this time. So I tried the Photoshop Elements 3.0 (for around $50). I wasn't overly impressed in it's use the first few times I tried it. But today I discovered two features that work nicely at enhancing images, bringing out the faint nebulousness while toning down the brighter areas.

These are (in the menu structure):
ENHANCE, ADJUST LIGHTING, (1) SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS and (2) LEVELS.
While many of the Photoshop Elements 3.0 features do not work on a 16 bit TIFF file, these two do and to me make it worth the cost. I believe I could eventually get the same results by working within the MaximDL, but not with the ease of the sliders and instant on-screen updates as provided with these features of Photoshop Elements 3.0.

Keep in mind that, so far, I have only tried two 16 bit grayscale TIFF files as exported from MaximDL. These were the Horsehead Nebula and M42. So I cannot speak for using these features for color images yet. The attached images of M42 are before and after adjusting in Photoshop Elements 3.0, reduced in size to 640 x 480 then exporting as 8 bit Jpeg files.

I'd never want to do without my MaxinDL/CCD, but the Photoshop Elements 3.0 is starting to look like a nice companion program.
Note: I'm not sure if V1.0 and V2.0 work with 16 bit images.

Has anyone else been using these or other features of Photoshop Elements 3.0 or the newest V4.0 to enhance your images?

Tonight (Sunday) is the 3rd nice night for imaging in a row. This image of M42 was taken Friday night.

This image is made up of 23 - 2 minute images and 25 - 30 second images (60 minutes total), captured and Sigma combined in MaximDL, SAVE as a IEEE (32 bit) FITS file, then SAVE AS a 16 bit TIFF. The TIFF file was adjusted in Photoshop Elements 3.0 with the LEVELS and SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS Tools to bring out the nebulous detail, then reduced to 696 x 520 size and saved as a Jpeg.

Hardware includes: SXV-H9 imager, FS-128 OTA at F6, CI-700 mount, SXV autoguider, and Ha filter.

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks
Steven Jindra

One of several images from this weekend.

This image is made up of 18 - 10 minute images (3 hours total), captured and Sigma combined in MaximDL, SAVE as a IEEE (32 bit) FITS file, then SAVE AS a 16 bit TIFF. The TIFF file was adjusted in Photoshop Elements 3.0 with the LEVELS and SHADOWS/HIGHLIGHTS Tools to bring out the nebulous detail, then reduced to 696 x 520 size and saved as a Jpeg.

Hardware includes: SXV-H9 imager, FS-128 OTA at F6, CI-700 mount, SXV autoguider, and Ha filter.

Any comments/suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks
Steven Jindra