LRGB Processing of M57

Well.....I posted a question on how to combine LRGB and was given the first tutorial link that actually worked for me and made sense.

Here is the link for others that need a good tutorial. www.waid-observatory.com/articles.htm

If you click on the link and find the LRGB tutorial it will guide you step by step. You must have the LRGB already combined however. I find that my color isn't as good as I would like, but it is a start, and makes me excited to get out again and try some larger nebula.

On another note...I think I figured out most of my equatorial wedge despite the instructions being written for a different design (slightly different alt fine tune adjustment...). I am going to get that done this evening and then hopefully figure out polar alignment and start learning how to do some longer exposures.

Here is the color M57.

9-27-2007 The Ring Nebula and Uranus

Clear skies again tonight, but lots of light from the moon. Decided to try the Ring Nebula since it wasn't very clear last time. After looking at other's photos, I realized I was not in focus.

Ring Nebula:

This time I only used the DSI without the barlow--remember I have the f/6.3 reducer

15 s exposures about 30 images LRGB.

I have no clue how to do color though....so here is my B&W taken from 30 Luminance images. All processing done in Registax4.

I've tried using some tutorials from http://www.cloudynights.com/, but I can't seem to figure out how to merge the RGB channels. I would like to figure out how to do it though to see what color my ring image has. When I open the color ones in Registax, it thinks they are black and white...to tell you the truth, I don't see any color myself. I suppose I don't truly understand how a monochrome camera works.

Uranus was not a success...I was trying to underexpose it, but I didn't really capture the globe or any moons. It was easy to see in the EP as a green globe, but came out almost starlike in the CCD. I will post a pic just to show how bad I got it. I def think a 5x telextender would help get the exposure and detail right.

Hopefully I will have better luck next time with Uranus. I think I am getting the focus on DSO's better though, as evidenced by the Ring. This imaging is a long slow road!

9-25-2007 Clear Skies Beckon Once Again

Well, I was still quite excited about my last time out since I was able to actually image the moon and Jupiter, but things clouded over for a few days. Luckily, all the raw images I had gave me things to do (although I made almost no improvement on the processing...) I can see why people claim that they work on images all winter when it is too cold. You can spend 10's of hours trying to tweak things.

New purchases while waiting for the skies to clear are:

1. Equatorial Wedge-came with instructions and parts that honestly don't match up! I can't put it together, and at this point don't care enough to call Meade. It will be a necessity with long exposures on DSO's.




2. 10mm Antares Ill Reticule EP--with the DSI, unless you have something perfectly centered you will never find it...save yourself the frustration.




3. 5.5mm 5000 series Plossl...Jupiter deserves a close look and so does Mars! Barlows just don't cut it for me on a visual level ( I have a cheapo)

Out we go tonight back to the Buffalo Gap Nat'l Grasslands. My goal is to do a better Jupiter, another moon, and some DSO's.

Started at dusk with the full moon. Didn't get anything to remarkable, but was fun to try again. Setting the camera up and focusing is going much faster now that I have my 26mm EP parfocal. I still get annoyed that it is so different however.

Now came Jupiter again. 3 bands are visible easily, so I make sure to try and not overexpose this time. I decided to use the 2x barlow with the DSI too to capture more detail. This really helped, and 30 stacked and wavelet adjusted images later in Registax here is what I got!

This wasn't visible in the stacked photos...only 1 band was dimly visible. This shows how even with no idea what to do, after aligning, messing around with the wavelet (gaussian and linear were used) brought out this. I am now a believer in processing planets at least.

The DSO's were much more difficult. I decided to do a 15s exposure to eliminate too much drift, but they are so faint that real care is needed when aligning in the EP. I was glad to have my 10mm Illuminated EP to help with that. I cannot however get that EP to be parfocal...it would have to be out of the diagonal a bit. The one thing I notice on the screen is that they are quite visible, but when opened in Registax, unless you really stretch them(Histogram) you can't see anything! Is this because of the darks? Why can't I open my darks in Registax? My folder has them, but when I go to load them in Registax they won't show up as options even though they are saved as fits....arrg. I can't get any of the below to turn out well as you can see, but I think it is processing error on my part. Remember, I am only doing monochrome luminance at this point. The thought of stacking colors etc is overwhelming. I probably should have got a one shot color to learn on in addition to my DSI pro...especially with the DSI color going for only $99.

The top left: Andromeda Galaxy-85x15s

Top Right: Dumbbell Nebula-31x15s

Left: M27 Ring-45x15s

As can be seen, there are lots of artifacts, hot pixels, streaks, star elongations, gradients, and weird spiral patterns. DSO's are NOT easy so far, but I'm happy to at least see something. Glad I got the focal reducer though, but I need to figure out how to include my dark frames I take to maybe help with some of these.

I think next time I am going to try the DSLR prime focus with the scope and see if I can get some color astrographs of these same DSO's...I do have a SCT Meade balance kit I got to counteract the weight of it, but have yet to put it on.

What I would still like to have: Planetary/Moon cam-30fps would be nice, and 5x telextender

For DSO's, I'll most likely just need a couple of years processing the dumb things as well as get my equatorial wedge put together and figure out polar alignment. That is going to wait until I have the processing down though.

9-21-2007 First "real" DSI try

Camping up at Sheridan Lake again, but this time decided to drive to the main parking lot to set up. Before dusk, got everything situated. Moon was the first target!

Before we start, I have to mention that I did receive my:

• Piggy back mount--installed but then I couldn't use my finder, and the camera isn't a good finder IMO, so it promptly came back off. Maybe there is a sol'n to this?



• F/6.3 Focal Reducer-installed



• DC adapter so I don't have to use my inverter (still running things off of my truck)

This makes things a little easier and now I feel better suited to the moon and DSO's. Trust me, the FOV on an 8" f10 is not big enough for DSO....advice that is on the forums but easy to dismiss until you try. Even with this reducer, the larger nebulae and galaxies like M31 are not possible in one picture.

First target: Loony Luna

I couldn't get the GOTO to work even when successfully aligned. This was an annoyance since I didn't want to manually track things. Oh well, I tried 5 times before finally giving up.

I focused on the moon with the DSI, auto exposed, and pressed start. Below is a photo of 7 stacked photos. I downloaded Registax and just loaded the photos, picked 3 features with the box, clicked align, and then went into PS7 to adjust the contrast, unsharp mask, and brightness. I really need to learn the processing steps, because I know from what I've seen at http://www.cloudynights.com/ that my images have more than enough info to get great astrographs. Here is my resultant moon--picture is as appears in telescope.

This above photo is the aligned photos in Registax, and the below is after PS7 adjustments

This actually feels like a decent first try! I'm quite happy with the moon although I have no processing skills, feel I brought out at least some detail.

Next up: The jovial Jovian wonder

For this, every time I pressed autoexpose, all I got was a flashing blob that was tiny on my screen. I wanted to capture the moons with Jupiter though, and to do that meant overexposing the tar out of it. The problem is once I had my overexposed Jupiter and moons, even with lowering the exposure time I was unable to get a Jupiter that even showed a band. 2 were very visible through the eyepiece. The result is below.

We have a start at least, and have learned some valuable lessons.

Notes:

I could really use a 5x telextender especially with my focal reducer

I should have used my 2x barlow while imaging Jupiter....never occured to me

Processing these photos is black magic, and I usually overdo it and have to start over, or make no progress. I have a bunch of links that I am going to examine that are supposed to be processing tutorials. Maybe I'll learn something??

9-20-2007 Out again

Well I decided to order the following after the last time:

f/6.3 Focal reducer Meade 4000 series
DC power so I don't have the lug of a converter in my case
T-mount and ring to use my D70 DSLR
Piggy back adapter for camera

In the meanwhile, off I go again to see more of the same. I didn't even bring the DSI with me for fear it would take away from my viewing.

Did the "Best of Tonight" again and spent more time with averted vision etc trying to see the Eagle nebula and M51. Neither was successful, but everything else was stunning as usual. Wife came along this time and was able to show her Jupiter with the tracking, so that was enjoyable.

I really think Sat and Jupiter are the best targets to show people. The moon being a distant 3rd unless you really can pump them up of where different Apollo missions landed etc...

Nothing too out of the ordinary today! Only spent 2 hours out of courtesy to my wife Sheena, and with GOTO, I'd my fill by then anyways!

I think I'm going to venture up the courage to get the DSI out next time. I need to learn sometime.

9-18-2007 Awesome Night!

SO, another moonless, beautiful transparent night.

Have this GOTO thing figured out, and while it was getting dark, decided to try to use the DSI CCD imager.

First annoying thing is that the EP's I have are not even close to parfocal with the DSI...they include a ring luckily, but it is so far down the end of my 26mm Plossl that you have to hold it or it will fall off if tilted more than 30 degrees.

I found the bright blob, the moon, cranked the focus knob CCW about 5 times and had a hazy bouncing image of the moon appeared on the screen. By the way, installation on the laptop was extremely straightforward and provided instructions worked perfectly. Camera plugged in, went to DSI imaging in the Autostar Suite software and it worked.

That said, it was super hard to focus, since the moon was almost ready to set, and the image is so zoomed in because of my 2000mm focal length, that I quickly gave up taking any images since it had almost set now anyways.

I decided to do Meade's "Best of Tonight" on the handset. I only knew 10-20 things I wanted to see anyway, and I figured this would be a great way to start off. I was super impressed with all the images I saw. Slewing was spot on, and I couldn't help but grin each time a faint nebula or cluster swung into sight.

The following were observed:
Albireo-beautiful double star with stunning color differences!
m13-very bright
m22,m34,m15,m92,m52 all nice clusters
m27-Very nice to see dumbbell, actually can see shape!
m57-had to have averted vision to see hollow core, but easily seen-very small though!
m31-nice bright core with smudges of light on either side
M11-very cool cluster Wild duck cluster
Swan, Ellip, Irr galaxy and nebulae could be seen
Coudn't see m51--this is the only part of the sky that still has LP even though 30 mi away.
Pleides is stunningly bright.

This made my day! I couldn't believe how much could be seen and how handy the GOTO was. I revisited my favorites, and by this time the dew was soaking all my manuals, magazines etc. Decided I was getting too cold (4 hours out) and packed up.

Best night so far! Imaging is going to have to wait though since obviously there is a huge learning curve.

9-15-2007 2nd Night

Finally decided to go out and setup somewhere with great views. The Buffalo Gap Nat'l Grasslands is a spot where you have 360 degree prarie views, and is far enough away from Rapid City, that the light pollution isn't bad. Weather was excellent and moon still young. Milky way felt as bright as the moon tonight!

Spent the first few minutes setting up, and then tried the Auto Align. It claimed "alignment successful", but when I told it to go to the moon (which I could see, although low) it said it didn't rise until 3:0 4 a.m.. I tried the same thing on Saturn and got the same message. For some reason this frustrated me, even though I knew it was my fault for some reason and decided to have a peek around manually.

I am clueless other than the big dipper, so I just looked for a bright objects. Of course, Jupiter was big and bright, and looking through showed me 4 moons on one side and 2 bands! This was super exciting, and I spent the next 2 hours looking at Jupiter. I had my camera along, and tried to take a picture through the eyepiece. The abysmal result is below. First image with LX200R!


Once Jupiter had set, I decided to look at my Astronomy magazine for more info on the planets (I wanted to see Saturn).

Saturn, of course, isn't visible until morning, so I quickly realized that maybe my GOTO wasn't crazy, and the moon was so low it thought that I shouldn't have been able to see it....

Firing up the "Auto Align" once again, I got to say "successfull, although it never gets very close to the star it wants you to align for some reason. Usually for me it isn't even in the finder, and that makes certain stars too hard to guess which it wants (I don't know my stars enough, remember). This time I put in a couple of things to see, but I was getting too cold to even remember what I wanted to see. I put in M51, and was unable (not patient, no averted vision) to see it. I called it a night.

Excellent views of Jupiter made this evening fun...looking forward to trying some more viewing with GOTO next time right from the start. Manual tracking is alot of work and takes away from viewing the objects.