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Posts Made By: John Krawczyk

November 18, 2004 04:39 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Auriga Messier Clusters M36,37 & 38

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All,

Auriga is now up to where i can image it at a decent hour so i went and did all three clusters over two nights. All three were captured and processed exactly the same.

Here is the shoot data

Shoot data:

Scope: Stellarvue SV-102 apo @ f/7.8
Camera: Nikon D70
Mount: Losmandy G-11
Guider: SBIG ST-4 w/SV-80/9d guidescope
Exposures: 12x120sec @ ISO800
Filter: None

The Nikon D70's in-camera noise reduction was turn on for all of the captures. No flats were taken. All registration was done with Registar 1.0. and MedianMean combined. I did digital development, log stretch and Richardson Lucy deconvolution in Images Plus 2.0. I did SGBNR and SCNR in PixInsight LE. I also used Paint Shop Pro for final black/white point adjustments and light unsharp masking.

Here are links to 1/2 size versions of all:

http://ardenastrophotography.com/M36_1500X1000.jpg

http://ardenastrophotography.com/M37_1500X1000_790k.jpg

http://ardenastrophotography.com/M38_1500X1000_550K.jpg

Thanks for looking.

November 30, 2004 03:05 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Lunar Craters with SV-102

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi all,

On the only clear night i've had in two weeks, the bright moon pretty much limited me to shooting it instead of the DSOs i was hoping to work on. I got a batch of AVI's with a ToUcam 840k, a TV 2.5x Powermate and my Stellarvue SV-102 apo on a Losmandy G-11. I collected the images with K3CCD and processed them with Registax and Paint Shop Pro. I had decent transparency, but seeing was about a 2/5 to 3/5. Lets just say there was a whole lotta shakin going on! To my best recollection, they were all done at 1/50 sec, 10fps, 20% gain, 50% brightness, 50% saturation and 10% gamma.

Link to Crater Petavius (best of the bunch)

http://ardenastrophotography.com/Petavius_041128_157k.jpg

Link to Crater Jansen & Vallis Rheita

http://ardenastrophotography.com/Jansen_041128_180k.jpg

Link to Mare Crisium

http://ardenastrophotography.com/MareCrisium_041128_319k.jpg

Thanks for looking

John Krawczyk
Crownsville, MD

December 2, 2004 06:47 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

NGC 869 & 884 w/Nikon D70 & SV-102apo

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All,

Last night i got a really good transparent skys so i decided to really do a nice set of captures for one of my favorite DSOs. The Double Cluster.

Here is the shooting data

Scope: Stellarvue SV-102 f/7.8 APO
Camera: Nikon D70 @ ISO800
Exposures: 12x300 sec w/noise reduction on
Filter: IDAS LPS
Mount: Losmandy G11
Guiding: ST-4 & Stellarvue SV-80/9d

Here are the links to larger versions

http://ardenastrophotography.com/DoubleCluster_fullsize_1600k.jpg

http://ardenastrophotography.com/DoubleCluster_halfsize_550k.jpg

Thanks for looking

December 5, 2004 08:22 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn with a 4" APO

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All

I though i would have a go at something i never did before. Stacking barlows. At 4" of aperature (even though its an APO) i'm somewhat limited for image scale. I
figured i would give the barlow stacking thing a go to see what would happen. I stacked a cheap 2x barlow into my 2.5x powermate and inserted the webcam nosepiece into the 2x barlow. This is my best Saturn image in the short year i've been doing AP.

Shoot Data:

Scope - Stellarvue SV-102 4" apo
Camera - Phillips ToUcam 840k II - 5 fps, 1/25 sec, 70% gain, 50%
brightness, 10% gamma, 50% saturation. Auto white balance.
Mount - Losmandy G-11
Exposures - 367/600 frames with Registax

Thanks for looking

December 5, 2004 08:29 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Crater Clavius and Rupes Recta w/SV-102

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All,

I'm slowly but surely building up a nice library of webcammed lunar features with my SV-102. Here are two I did on Saturday moring 12/4/04. A 2.5x powermate was used.


Crater Clavius (58/1200 frames - hand picked)

http://ardenastrophotography.com/Clavius_041204_375k.jpg

and

Rupes Recta-Straight Wall (35/600 frames - hand picked)

http://ardenastrophotography.com/StraightWall_041204_416k.jpg

Thanks for looking,

January 11, 2005 02:10 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

M42 w/Nikon D70 & SV-102 apo

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All

Here is an image of part of a work in progress. I cropped out the M42/43 part of my Sword of Orion project to showcase just the great nebula. I have plans to add about 2 more hours of data to it with sets of 8 min and 10 min exposures. Heres how i've done it so far:

Camera: Nikon D70 - unmodified
Exposures: 5x10 sec, 5x20 sec, 10x30 sec & 7x360 sec - All ISO800
Scope: SV-102 apo @ f/6.24 (w/TV .8x FR)
Mount: G-11
Guiding: ST-4 & SV-80/9d guidescope
Filters: 48mm IDAS LPS

All images were calibrated with Darks and Flats using Images Plus 2.1 and Paintshop Pro 8. All registration and avg combining with Registar 1.0. DDP with IP 2.1. SGBNR noise reduction with PixInsight LE. All other processing with Paintshop Pro 8.

Thanks for looking,

John Krawczyk
Crownsville, MD

January 24, 2005 07:05 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn w/SV-102

Posted By John Krawczyk

I've been not so lucky with the weather for quite some time now. Dec 26 was the last time i was able to image Saturn. Its a 443 frame from 2000 stack in Registax 3. Taken with a ToUcam in my 4" apo with stacked 2x barlow and 2.5x powermate. The left side is full size and the right side is 2x size. In the 2x images you can see a little of the Crepe ring. (at least i think thats the Crepe ring) Images were processed a little more in PaintShop and Neat Image. Seeing IIRC that night was not good. Maybe 2-3 out of 5.

Thanks for looking.

January 25, 2005 06:24 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Re: Saturn Opposition Collaboration

Posted By John Krawczyk

Congratulations on a fine image. If there is a better amature image out there, i havent seen it.

John

January 31, 2005 12:28 AM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Theopilis and Cryllus

Posted By John Krawczyk

Taken on 1/29/05
SV-102 apo & ToUcam w/2.5x powermate & 2x barlow stacked

50 +/- hand picked frames from 600.

Thanks for looking

February 3, 2005 03:27 PM Forum: CCD Imaging and Processing/Solar System

Saturn RGB image w/ATIK-2HS & 4" APO

Posted By John Krawczyk

Hi All,

On Tuesday we had some of the that rare 4/5 seeing and tranparency. Lucky for me the ATIK-2HS i bought from a fellow amarter (thanks Doug!) showed up the day before along with a set of new Astronomik type 2 LRGB filter and a holder. Monday was like Christmas only better. I set up my rig in the normal manner for webcam imaging and shot 2 avis for every color plus luminance. I didnt have much information in the way of proper protocol for settings and workflow, but i thought i did ok with it so far. This is the best Saturn image i have taken with my SV-102 apo. I used a 2.5x powermate stacked in a 2x barlow. I plan to purchase a 5x powermate real soon! One mistake i made during capture was to change the gain setting during the colored filter phase. So my color balance is off a bit. I tried hard to restore it with hue and saturation settings. This is the best i could do with it. I found out yesterday that you have to leave the gain settings the same for the colored filters, but changing the Lum is ok. The settings i used were 1/25 sec, 10fps, 50% bright (the gain i adjusted per filter as mentioned). I ran the final image thru Neat Image to clean it up a little too.

Like many i who have posted about this, i am a rank amature at RGB imaging. However this is a very exciting and im pleased with the results vs the ToUcam. For my small aperture, the extra sensitivty of the monochrome camera will give me better results than the ToUcam. I just need to learn how to do it right!

Thanks for looking