Posts Made By: dietmar hager

hi guys,

here is my result of last night.
I imageed at around 20h U.T.
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/holmes2.html

thanks for looking

...congratulations on a very well deserved NASA APOD, Alan!

best regards,
Dietmar

hi guys,

8 weeks passed by without one single chance for decent astrophotography except 1st of november when I imaged the
comet:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/holmes2.html

these days we have clear skies with superb transparency,...but seeing is really at its worse! minus 10 on pickering's scale...
so I had some time to write up my thoughts covering the interesting topic
monochromatic vs OSC - quite frankly, I tend to feel, that these different types of CCD do not necessarily need to be competitors....but please find time to check this out:
MONO vs OSC:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/mono_vs_osc.html

I'd appreciate any comments and thoughts you might have.

I know we have discussed this a couple of times,...it's just my attempt, to beat the DSI-less time for me here,...

hello to all my CCD imaging mates on this web-forum,

I wish you all the very best for the upcoming holidays!
also my the new year bring us all many nights with clear and steady skies.
don't wish for too much,...just stay healthy and happy.

hi my friends,

it's been a while since my last post.
weather was nasty for more than 2 months.
but - everything ends and so does bad weather...

I started M76 in an almost perfect night! 1.11.07 - we had terrific seeing and transpareny. (8)-9/10 !
but that night moon came up high in the sky so I had to stop after 2 hours - it was just too bright.
then of course - I had to wait a little ... and on friday last week I was able to complete the session with 5.5 more hours of exp time.
single frames 10 minutes and 15 minutes.

scope: 9" f/9 TMB Apo
CCD: SXVF M25C one shot color
image acquisition, autoguiding preprocesing astroart4.
also CCD sharp and registax for preprocessing.
postprocessing (incuding pseudoluminance) in PS CS2 and Pix Insight LE.

here we are with a small preview:


FULL size:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-full.html

make sure to check out his enlarged crop HERE:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/M76-ecrop.html

this little nebula holds only some 61 ar seconds in its longitudinal axis and therefore is a "hard nut" in terms of resolution and detail.

I am really very glad with that result, as the central appears to be a little elongated and one could get the idea, it has two parts...(only visible in the enlarged crop)well, I admit - this is personal bias here...
also the small stargroup was a specific target and I am happy, the 9" apo split this group.

looking forward for your comments and tips, guys!

hi gang,

hey - what is that? luminance only...? no color...?

well,
this is a result of an experiment I conducted last night when seeing was really very good for a short periode.
I used a monochromatic demo-CCD SXVF H36, my 9" TMB apo but this time @ f/18 !
I slammed in the 2" 2* big barlow cos I wanted to see, if the system is powerful enough to allow imaging bright small planetary nebulas - which shall become one of my future tasks,...I hope.

singel frames were only 4 minutes 'short' and it worked nicely.
I also took rgb files, but in primary focus at f/9.
today when preprocessing the data the bad news came along:

after completing luminance and r,g,b seperatly I wanted to registar and align these 2 master-frames.
but - no chance to do so! no software I used was able to stack these two successfully!

I really did not expect this in the fist place.

I often use f/9 data and combine it with f/7 data, when I use my reducer/flattener.

but obviously there is a big difference in what happens to the field when trying to combine f/9 and f/18...
I would have had to crop the image so dramatically that I refused to do so,...cos it would have been to embarrassing...

frankly, this luminance image you see in the full size is already a crop, as my f/9 system illuminantes the chip nicely, but fails to cast nice round stars onto the chip all over the area.
I had to crop the frames down to 50% !

so - I N E E D a decent flattener for my 9" TMB Apo f/9.

in future I'll have to do my r,g,b files also with the barlow lenses...

data:
8.1.08:
9" f/18 (TV 2" 2* big barlow)
SXVF H36 (50% crop)
18x4 minutes single frams
7 darkframes

image acquisition: AA4
preprocessing (dark-calibration, kernel filtering, alignment, stacking and Deconv. in maxim dl)
pre-sharpening in CCD sharp. DDP in Maxim DL.
postprocessing in PS CS2.

full size (crop) can be found here:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/2392-full-L.html

an enlarged crop is here:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/2392-enl-crop-L.html

hi friends,

o.k. here we are:
I have tried to kind of match the distorted and differently bended rgb files with the luminance result I have posted recently.
I had to this in photoshop,...it was hard,...but it worked fairly enough to present this l-rgb version here.

data:
luminance:
9"f/18 TMB Apo using televue big bralow
SXVF H36 - crop (as I told you less than 50% remained...it'S the files issue that I will have to solve with a decent flattener...

l = 18x4 minutes
7 dark frames
r,g,b 9"f/9 5x4 minutes each.
maxim color calibration:
r=1.3
g=0.8
b=1.1

this was trial and error stuff, since I will have to do a G2V star color balancing with the entire system...

http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/NGC2392-LRGB.html

thanks for taking a look.
Dietmar

hi friends,

another composit of a monochromatic CCD and OSC.
I imaged this tough little planetary nebula at
f/18, using 2" 2*powermate and SXVF H36 (heavily cropped)
colors were then achieved with my M25C OSC.
L and OSC aligned in photoshop
2hours of luminance 10 min subs
2 hours of color 10 min subs
seeing 7-8/10
transparency 8/10

I did the colors with the OSC cos for RGB it was simply too late and I would have failed to finished this object in one night; which was my intention, cos I never know if another fine night follows in a reasonable time,...and I was right,...

this is a small preview:


full size version erhe please:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/ngc1514.html

hi guys,

this is the final image in which H36 will be involved, since I will have to give it back,...it is a demo-CCD.

I wanted to make sure, to finish this most difficult object in one night.
seeing was very good and so was transparency.
6.5 hours total exp time.

Lum: 15x10 min
color: OSC 25x10 min M25C
9" TMB Apo f/9

all images can be found here:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/ngc2371.html

thanks!

hi guys,

I returned from London astrofest yesterday and brought a new CCD along.
it is a monochromatic Stalight Xpress SXVF H16 - 2024 over 2024 pixel; 7.2 micrometer.

fortunately the night was clear, seeing decent and transparency fairly good enough for some FL...

here is the data:

9" TMB Apo folded apochromatic refractor (the 'big boy'...(-
SXVF H16
L: 1x1 bin, 15x9 min; no darks
R,G,B: 2x2 bin, 7x9 min; no darks

image acquisition in astroart 4
preprocessing in maxim, registax, ccd sharp
postprocessing in Ps CS2 and Pix Insight LE
color balance by trial ( i did not want to waste time with a g2v procedure last night, as I had to take all advantage out of that nice conditions...r=1.3 g=1 b=1.1

all images can be found here:

http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/ngc4490.html

I must admit, irregular galaxies are both, most beautiful and fascinating for their star burst acitivity.
I did one last year, when I tested H16:
http://www.stargazer-observatory.com/4449.html

thanks for looking - your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

regards,
Dietmar