Starship Asterisk*

_____________________________________________________________________________

Please post your images here for October 26-29.

If you need instructions on posting images, please see this thread.

Thank you!
_____________________________________________________________________________


<- Previous submissions


Jupiter RGB Sequence
http://www.galacticimages.com
Copyright: John Chumack Several have asked, "How do you get a color image with a Black & White DMK 21AF04 Fire-wire web camera?"

First I had to purchase a set of Astronomik’s or AstroDon RGB Filters:
R filter for the Red,
G filter for the Green,
B filter for the Blue.

The filters all have IR/UV wavelengths blocked so will give you the natural color of the object your imaging. Shooting through these filter only let that specific wavelength range of light through. I capture each channel individually, using the webcam saving as an AVI (video) file. I capture Avi video of each Channel, quickly, as Jupiter rotates so fast it can blur the cloud details in only 90 seconds.

I stack the Avi’s movies in Registax (freeware) software, which gives me only the sharpest frames from the video. The atmosphere blurs many of the frames, so you need to use only the good ones. You usually end up with 3 nice (black & white) Monochromatic images. Then I combined all three Monochrome images (RGB channels) on a computer with software (Maxim DL is what I use) it will give you a RGB natural color image.

There is another channel that can be captured using no filter, which is Luminance, this would give you an LRGB image, but that’s whole other chapter. I did not use a Luminance channel in this image.

Why don’t I just use a Color video web Camera?

Several reasons:

• Current Color Cameras are not as sensitive as Monochrome/B&W cameras.
• The Color Cameras are typically lower resolution,
• The color ones do not give as clean of an image, the built in filters were not design for astronomical imaging,
• They tend to be noisier too!

A Monochrome/B&W Camera may take more time to capture & assemble 3 images, but the image quality is usually better & cleaner and has more fine details retained. This particular Jupiter RGB set was captured on 10-19-10 from my backyard in Dayton, Ohio.


<- Previous submissions

IC 1805, The Heart Nebula

http://www.astromodelismo.es/index.htm
Copyright: Máximo Ruiz



Full Size: http://www.astromodelismo.es/Web%20Astr ... 201805.jpg


Hi all take this first impression I get to introduce amateur astrophotographer Maximo Ruiz and I live in Barcelona / Spain

Veil Nebula
http://www.tonylicata.org
Copyright: Tony Licata
Here's the eastern portion of the Veil Nebula taken at the Great Lakes Star Gaze. There are so many stars in this region of sky, many of similar brightness, I had to work hard to process and keep them from bloating and dominating the image. Registar Star Count: 82,843! (Someone in a previous post recommended Registar for counting stars and after some testing, I find it is producing a reliable count even of the faintest point spots.) Thanks.

I understand so very little about astrophotography (I just love to look at the pictures that others have taken ), but if I understand uyou correctly, John Chumack, you have made your Jupiter portrait using relatively simple equipment.

Well, congratulations! Your Jupiter looks very nice. Thanks for phtographing Jupiter through both red, green and blue filters. I always appreciate that!

Ann

Contrast Moon
Copyright: Lee DeCovnick I'm including the original unprocessed photograph to show what can be done with iPhoto and Preview editing tools. While Photoshop's layering techniques are invaluable on deep sky objects, lunar and planetary photographs can be sharpened and tinted to bring out wonderful surface details using smaller and less expensive editing tools.

Walnut Creek, Ca, October 18, 2010 20:16 PDT
Equipment: Vixen VC200L f/9 Prime Focus, Vixen Sphinx SWX, Nikon D70 1/230 sec. iPhoto editing with Preview with a 27" 2.8GHz Quad-Ccore iMac

I'm developeing a collection of photographs that highlight striking lunar surface contrasts, (mares, rays, basins, craters) while harkening back to the famous Mt. Wilson lunar plates. During the next few months, I plan to use the same contrast "masks" on the usual (and unusual) lunar suspects.

Hello

I want to show you this picture of mine for : the Fireworks galaxy (NGC6946) at the boundary between Cygnus and Cepheus



It was taken with a Newton telescope 24" @ f/4 and a common reflex Canon EOS 450d from Cervarezza (R.E.), Italy. (44°24'N 10°20'E)
This galaxy contains a lot of HII regions, and it's very spectacular.
Recently a lot of supernovae were discovered in it.
NGC 6946 is highly obscured by interstellar matter of our Milky Way, so it's difficult to take very deep images of this galaxy.

Because the camera is almost completely blind at H alpha wavelenght I used a H beta sequence , which falls in the sensitivity peak of reflex, to take informations about HII emission regions (the monochrome information were then transformed into red in the picture)
I hope you'll find this method good

This image is the result of about 2 hours sequence in RGB light with the add of 1 hour Hb sequence
It's also visible the very big external galaxy structure which, in my opinion, is not often photographed


You can find the high resolution picture on my site, Galaxy page
http://stefano-campani.net46.net/web_im ... to_int.jpg
and in my homepage for now (waiting for new incoming images..)
http://stefano-campani.net46.net/



Forgive incompleteness of my site, it's still under construction (I've begun some weeks ago, during my free time)
As soon as possible I'll add some description about photographic subjects and imaging methods



I hope you like this picture
Stefano

IC443 and NGC2175
http://darkskyimages.com/image.php?phot ... ry=Nebulas
Copyright: Scott Tucker A wide-field image showing a couple nebulas not often imaged together: IC443, a supernova remnant in Gemini, and NGC2175, a diffuse nebula in Orion. Several other nebulas are seen as well.

Link to a labeled version of the image:
http://darkskyimages.com/images/IC443_N ... Labels.jpg

Hi Stefano!

I like your picture, and I particularly like that you have managed to bring out the large outer low surface brightness arms. You are right, they are not often seen in photographs!

Ann

Reflection Nebula in Pleiades (open star cluster M-45)

ProLine FLI 16803, FSQ 106 EDXIII, AP Mach1GTO
LRGB 4,26h (96:50:50:60) sub-frame L-480s/RGB-600s
Bieszczady (Roztoki Gorne), Polska :

[attachment=0]M45_Bogdan.jpg[/attachment][/i]
http://www.starrysite.com/pliki/galeria ... rysite.jpg

Bogdan Jarzyna
http://www.starrysite.com
jarzynabogdan@o2.pl

Ship Wreck 360° Panorama
http://www.greeksky.gr/files/photos/lan ... ipPano.htm
Copyright: Chris Kotsiopoulos

NGC 7789: Open ("Screaming Skull") Cluster in Cassiopeia
http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-7789.htm
Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis

NGC281: Emission Nebula and Open Cluster in Cassiopeia
http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC281-BYU.html
Credit/copyright: Image acquisition: Michael Joner and David Laney (BYU); image processing: Robert Gendler

Reflected startrails and autumnal colours

Tamas, that's very nice! Is it in Hungary?

Hmmm...let's try that again.
Copyright: Kimball Staples

Crepuscular rays over Humble, TX. Not the greatest foreground, but the crepuscular rays are very dramatic. I took this on August 6, 2010 at 8:20 pm.

Many great images here!

It's fascinating to see how the Pleiades image is aswirl with nebulosity. I'm a little confused at the reddish color of the dust in the lower part of the pictur, and I am a little doubtful of it, but it makes for a great color contrast.

The shipwreck panorama is starkly beautiful. Thanks!

The star trails in the little lake or pond are lovely. The little building is delightful.

The crepuscular rays are dramatic indeed!

I also like NGC 7789, an open star cluster which must have been supremely impressive when it was young to be able to stick together for as long as it has. I believe that this cluster may be as old as the Sun, which is highly unusual for open clusters.

Ann

Anticrepuscular rays over the Grand Canyon
Copyright: Ben Darby Taken October 3, 2010, as the sun was setting.

That's a great image, Ben D. The composition is very nice and the colors stunning. And the anticrepuscular rays are great, of course!

Ann

The Witch's Broom
http://www.perseus.gr/Astro-DSO-NGC-6960.htm
Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis

AR1117 Compared with the Size of the Earth and with the Distance from Earth to the Moon
http://www.fobos.es/sol271010a.htm
Copyright: Jesus Carmona de Argila

OwlNote: WOW!

Ann wrote:Hi Stefano!

I like your picture, and I particularly like that you have managed to bring out the large outer low surface brightness arms. You are right, they are not often seen in photographs!

Ann

Thank you so much Ann!

Stefano

Sun @ 16 October, 2010
http://overdestiny.com/observacao-dia-1 ... tubro-2010
Copyright: Daniel Bento Description:
This photo was taken during the lunch hour at Portugal (UTC +00 about 13h00)
It was my first Sun's Sunspot photography set and the equipment used was:
Newtonian 200mm @ f/5 | EQ-5
Canon EOS 400D in projection with 10mm ocular and 2xBarlow.
Next time, I will try with more detail

Moon @ 16 October, 2010
http://overdestiny.com/observacao-dia-1 ... tubro-2010
Copyright: Daniel Bento Description:
This photo was taken during the dinner hour at Portugal (UTC +00 about 21h00)
Another first photo, this time, to the moon and my first mosaic too
The equipment used was:
Newtonian 200mm @ f/5 | EQ-5
Canon EOS 400D in projection with 10mm ocular and 2xBarlow.
Composition of 40 moon photos

owlice wrote:Tamas, that's very nice! Is it in Hungary?

Thanks for your comment. Yes, it can be found in the village of Dég in Hungary.

owlice wrote:Ship Wreck 360° Panorama

I love this one! Amazing panorama!

Tamas Ladanyi wrote:

owlice wrote:Tamas, that's very nice! Is it in Hungary?

Thanks for your comment. Yes, it can be found in the village of Dég in Hungary.

Tamas, thanks for the information; much appreciated!