Pictures (Old and New)

Comet Hyakutake (photo taken with 55MM f1.8 Canon lens 800 ASA Fujifilm on a barn door mount)
Comet Hale-Bopp (photo taken with 55MM f1.8 Canon lens 800 ASA Fujifilm on a barn door mount)

The Andromeda Galaxy (55MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 25 15sec images
M42 in Orion (55MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 36 25sec images
M35 in Gemini (55MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 10 40sec images
The Flame and Horsehead nebulae (55MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 18 40sec images. This one has really been pushed to bring out the nebulosity. I will try and get it next time with a little less processing.
The Flame and Horsehead nebulae (50MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 60 40sec images. A much better effort (now you can see the horsehead without having to use your imagination!).
Jupiter and the Beehive (55MM f1.8 Canon lens) stack of 25 20sec images

May 11,2003
I've taken the plunge and purchased a new (well, new to me!) telescope with MUCH better tracking capabilities. Still getting used to it and I have a loooong way to go before I get the polar alignment down pat (and focussing the dang thing), BUT it does do pretty good even now.

New equipment: Meade LX6 8" f6.3 scope with Electronic Command Center, electric focuser and Equatorial wedge. The following images are from my first really good night with it all working (and I'm starting to figure out all the bits and pieces).

June 30, 2003

My QuickCam Pro 3000 has undergone some fairly extensive rebuilding. I've taken it out of the cheap plastic case it was originally mounted in. Its now housed in metal project case, has had Peltier cooling added and a Canon lens mount attached so I can easily attach lenses or put a T-adapter on it and attach it at prime focus on my telescope. As you can see from the following images, still plenty of room for improvement.

Here is an example of why you should never discard your raw webcam images. All of the following pictures are from the same series of raw images. The only difference is in the processing.

• M13 first night right after taking the images. Stacked using K3CCD.
• M13 the next day. A little rest and its starting to look better. Notice the sinusoidal tracks. These are from hot pixels which are removed with dark frame subtraction, but they do show that my polar alignment needs work...
• I've resized the picture and done some more processing. Dark subtraction in this and the following images. A little more work with levels in Photoshop.
• I've restacked the images in Registax. Processing basically the same as the picture above.
• One more time. Back to K3CCD and more tweaking in Photoshop using gaussian blur and unsharp masking.

I think the final image is greatly improved from the first one. And each one started from the same raw material!

July 18/2003

• North American Nebula10 90 sec shots with gain at 30% and gamma at about 35%.
• M27 (The Dumbbell Nebula)10 90 sec shots with gain at 30% and gamma at about 35%. M27 is the little blue guy in the bottom right.
• Veil Nebula (NGC 6992)10 90 sec shots with gain at 30% and gamma at about 35%.

Aug 30/2003

• M31 (Andromeda Galaxy)20 60 sec shots with gain at 35% and gamma at about 49%. I "may" be getting the hang of image processing. I'm getting better at polar alignment too.

Sept 1/2003

• M13 51 10 sec shots with gain at 50% and gamma at about 49%.

Oct 25/2003

All pictures taken with Canon 50mm lens at f1.8 piggybacked on Meade 8" LX6

• M33 22 60 sec shots with gain at 40% and gamma at about 40%. Dark frame subtracted.
• M45 15 60 sec shots with gain at 40% and gamma at about 40%. Dark frame and flat frame subtracted.
• Double Cluster in Perseus 33 30 sec shots with gain at 40% and gamma at about 40%. Dark frame and flat frame subtracted.

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