TAG Image Processing
Image Processing Workflow
The pretty pictures that show up on this website take a little work to produce. Just getting the camera to take a photo is quite a process, with balance and alignment and […]
Astro knowledge / General / Techniques
Stumbling towards plate solving
I planned to solve all the images I’d shot so far, so that I have good data about where the telescope has ben drifting about. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until halfway […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC7000, The North America Nebula in Cygnus
This is my first HaRGB shot. It’s a combination of grayscale luminance data that I captured while camping at Coyote Lake, CA over the weekend, and color data that I captured from […]
Long Exposure Photography / Observing Reports
In search of more Cygnus nebulosity — Sh2-115, 116, and 112
It was cloudy on Saturday night, but Sunday night I decided to try out another run at the Cygnus Milky Way. I have a decently large target list of nebulae that are […]
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Another attempt at NGC7000
This time I tried 20m subframes (polar alignment not good enough — much field rotation) and settled on 10m subframes (lots of detail but no star trails). I forgot to change the […]
stacking vs. subframe
While I was testing out the Ha filter last night, I decided to test out a theory. Like most astrophotographers, I take lots of short subframes of my subject, then stack them […]
CCD Imaging Primer
http://docs.sdaa.org/AISIG/CCD_Imaging_Primer.pdf lots of basic information about equipment and software selection, and a really nice section on image processing.
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC 4725 and friends
Here’s last night’s result. Not too bad. I really like NGC 4725. It’s one of those galaxies that I never hear about, but it’s very photogenic and has a really cute companion […]
Uncategorized
To "boxcar" or not to "boxcar"
Doug (author of MaxIM DL) suggests shooting everything RAW Monochrome. This has never worked correctly for me, but whatever. IMPORTANT POINT: If (and only if) flats are shot in RAW Monochrome, then […]
Creating a lightbox for flats
I finally knuckled under to the pressure of the dust bunnies and decided to shoot “flat field” frames with my astrophotos. A “flat” is a photo of an evenly illuminated surface. Since […]
RECENT UPDATE
Polar Alignment Calculations
Here’s a page that derives Polar Alignment Calculations. (update 5/2020: the original site is gone, so I found the text on Wayback and am inserting it below. This is by the original […]
Gear / Observatory / Telescope
Special Guest Star takes the mount at Hilltop O
The Astro Jedi needed somewhere to store his light sab—- I mean, bucket, and I was only too happy to accommodate him. I have decided that I need to come to a […]
General / Maintenance / Observatory
Dome shutter is motorized again!
I finally decided to bite the bullet and fix the shutter motor. Things went sideways last winter, and I’ve been opening the shutter manually (and tying it shut with rope, so we […]
Trixie 2017 – tube mods
I finally got around to cutting the MTA-UTA tubes to length; the only eyepiece that would come to focus with the focuser spacer in place is the Televue 55mm Plossl. If I […]
MOST COMMENTED
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – Time has come today!
General / Maintenance
First Light, a deeper look
Mount / Observatory / Telescope
Observatory 2.0 – Result!
Observatory
Observatory 2.0 – The Pier goes in
Gear / General / Maintenance
Martin Farmer Wormblock installation notes
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
NGC2244, The Rosette Nebula
Deep Sky / Long Exposure Photography
Another beautiful night.