Image of the day

Captured by
GERALD KREITZBURG

Eastern Veil Nebula

My Account

New to Astromart?

Register an account...

Need Help?

AIC summary

Started by RolandC, 11/04/2009 05:00PM
Posted 11/04/2009 05:00PM Opening Post
Hi Folks,

Marj and I have returned from AIC (Advanced Imaging Conference in San Jose, Cal) where we showed our 3600 mount and the two 305mm astrograph telescopes. Attendance was great and we had a lot of interest in our stuff. Thanks to all the amateurs who stopped by to chat with us. We had Howard and Wally along, who did a nice job explaining the operation of the mount and the new APCC software (which is not quite finished).

I had a chance to see some new stuff along the lines of filters, software and CCD cameras among other things. I did manage to hear a few of the talks including our own Tom Davis (aka Dusty Tom) who discussed image processing shortcuts that help him to pull very faint dusty details out of his CCD images. Tony Hallas discussed noise reduction techniques that helps him to produce smooth colorful images of deep sky objects. Tony was selling a set of videos where he explains everything you ever wanted to know about image processing and image capture of deep sky objects. Steve Mandel gave a very interesting talk about intergalactic, or was it extra-galactic dust clouds, which pervade the universe, and which are the building blocks of life. In fact the one dominant molecule in the universe happens to be just a tiny step away from the hemoglobin molecule in our own bloodstream.

Many other talks discussed advances in remote imaging, very high resolution imaging, new CCD cameras, processing techniques and more. Anyone who is into imaging should seriously consider next year's AIC conference, where you can meet world class amateurs and learn new tricks and techniques - an astronomy imaging camp of the first class. The event was well thought out and run in a friendly and professional manner, with great food being served during the lunch and dinner hours, plus lots of great sight seeing opportunities. We spent two nights in the San Francisco area, complete with hiking in Muir Woods, riding the cable cars, checking out the Maritime Museum on the waterfront, and dining on Fisherman's Warf and in Sausalito.

"till next year,

Rolando and Marj

Attached Image:

RolandC's attachment for post 48905
Posted 11/04/2009 05:01PM #1
Here are the two astrographs, all fully coated and ready for action.

Attached Image:

RolandC's attachment for post 133683
Posted 11/08/2009 07:51AM #2
Hi Roland,

It was great to meet you, Marj and your entire team at AIC this year. The scopes and mount you brought along were great too...
I had fun talking with you; I was blessed enough to sit at your table for dinner and I really had a great time.
Now let me get back to my AP1200 and AP160 ;-)

Francois