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Posts Made By: Andrew Riehl

April 28, 2003 08:38 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

AP Star 130 ED first light (serious)...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Last night I finally got my new scope into the observatory. I started at dusk, but spent a large amount of time getting everything mounted and leveled on the pier, then doing on heck of a serious drift alignment. Once I finally started imaging, M81 was starting to get a little low in the sky for my location, so the color will have to wait for another night. Everything worked absolutely flawless (guiding, etc) and left me very happy and looking forward to some great nights ahead. Here's the image info:
AP Star 130 ED F/8 on G-11, ST-2000xm/cfw-8 at full resolution with IDAS LPS filter. 100 minutes of lum exposure (10x10min). This is a half size image, I'll post the full res below. Comments/tips appreciated; I still may have a little tweaking/learning to do with the new scope/mount.

April 28, 2003 09:51 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

I think I'll keep it...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Here's another shot I took (m13) after the m81 lum. Same setup, only it's a straight RGB 10:10:10 min (2 min. sub exposures). Full res below...

April 30, 2003 06:57 AM Forum: Equipment Talk

beatuiful bolide...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Anybody catch the wonderful bolide I just saw? (3:00 am edt). it was NW about 20 degrees up here in southern PA. Extremely bright; I saw the flash reflecting on the wall, thinking it was a car headlight a ways off, I turned around just in time to see this thing breaking up and finally exploding with an audible 'poof'. Best one I've seen in a long while.

April 30, 2003 06:58 AM Forum: Deep Sky Observing

beautiful bolide...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Anybody catch the wonderful bolide I just saw? (3:00 am edt 4/30/03). it was NW about 20 degrees up here in southern PA. Extremely bright; I saw the flash reflecting on the wall, thinking it was a car headlight a ways off, I turned around just in time to see this thing breaking up and finally exploding with an audible 'poof'. Best one I've seen in a long while.

April 30, 2003 04:06 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Got color...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Got some color for my m81 image...here's the reduced size image...same setup as before, only a 40:30:30 RGB binned 2x2 added to the lum...

April 30, 2003 04:31 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

M101 Lum...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
M101 Lum image (no time for color). AP Star 130 ED f/8 on G11. ST-2000xm/cfw-8 w/IDAS lps filter at full resolution. 90 minutes exposure (9x10min). Image reduced in size for posting. Thanks for looking.

April 30, 2003 07:54 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

m81 reworked...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Well, I decided not to get anymore exposure time on m81; I decided to work in some old data I had taken with my 11" I used to have... Thank god for Registar; the 11" data I blended in was the bulk of the core; a little of the arms were chopped off. This boosted my s/n a lot more, and a little creative layer masking to blend it in let me push it a lot more. I think I like this one much better.

May 3, 2003 03:35 PM Forum: Equipment Talk

3 point losmandy rings...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
I'm looking to piggyback my Tak fs-78 atop my AP 130 on a g-11. I would be ccd'ing through either scope, depending on the target. Idealy I would use a Losmandy dovetail on top of the AP rings with the Losmandy sliding 3 point rings. I'm concerned about stiffness/rigidity/stability etc. Would the 3 point losmandy rings hold the 78 well enough with the extra weight of a ccd camera/filter wheel/etc. over long exposures?

May 5, 2003 05:04 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

To bin or not to bin...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Well this new scope of mine has me in a bit of a conundrum...I'm running my st-2000 (7.4u pixels) at 1040mm focal length. This gives me a scale of 1.46 arc seconds per pixel at full res. Binning 2x2 would yield about 2.9 arcseconds per pixel. I've never actually measured my normal seeing here, but its pretty cruddy. It'd be real nice to have the added sensitivity of binned pixels (I'm working at f/8). Would I be losing much detail in the process?

May 6, 2003 12:12 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

I've wanted to do this for a while (big)...

Posted By Andrew Riehl
Star 130 ED at f/8 with ST-2000xm/cfw-8 through green and IDAS filters. Median combine of 25 frames, each 0.03 seconds long. Further processing in photoshop. Thanks for looking!

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