Patrick Holland
11/5/2011 10:31:18 PM
Here's the half completed bubble image. I've got 4.5 hours of HA data, 2.3 hours of OIII data so far. I wanted to start seeing color so I went ahead and processed what I have so far. Pre-processing in Maxim DL, post processing in Photoshop CS3. I will add more OIII data soon and then get about 5 hours of Sulfer data to complete the image.
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Jim Aldrich
10/30/2011 4:53:10 PM
IC 342 is a nearby giant spiral galaxy in Camelopardalis that closely resembles our own galaxy. It is around 14mly distant and lies along a line of sight through the galactic plane. This makes it a difficult object to observe or photograph because its light is attenuated by the gas and dust of our own galactic home. IC 342 is an active galaxy with many nebulae & star forming regions. This LRGB image was taken with about 8 hours of total exposure time.
Journey's End Observatory
14" Meade LX200ACF
CGE-Pro Mount
SBIG STL-11000M Camera
MOAG & AO-L Guided
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Patrick Holland
10/25/2011 12:01:11 AM
This is the same bubble image as I posted before with 10 more HA subs added for a total of 17 - 10 minute subs. With nearly 3 hours total time, the noise is dimishing and the signal is getting stronger. Next time out, I plan to start adding OIII data to the image.
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Mario Brus
10/19/2011 9:14:23 PM
This is the Vega spectral curve (red) that is corrected for the CCD response curve. It is plotted against a standard curve (blue) for Vega that is available in catalogues of stellar spectra. The mathematical manipulations of the original amplitude/wavelength plot does not affect the position of the Hydrogen Balmer lines. You can see that the standard curve is much smoother indicating ideal seeing and very expensive advanced equipment! Conceptually, what we are looking at here are the absorption lines of the hydrogen that exists in the "atmosphere" of Vega. As light passes from the deeper zones of the star's interior, discrete amounts of energy are absorbed by hydrogen in the outer atmosphere that excites electrons to higher energy states. This leaves dark lines in the underlying spectrum. You can look for a variety of elements in this way using standard absorption patterns for the various elements, e.g. He, C, and heavier elements like Fe.
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Mario Brus
10/19/2011 8:53:18 PM
Well, as I have been threatening, I finally took the leap into astro spectroscopy. Here is my first attempt to achieve a stellar spectrum, Vega. This first image is the intensity plotted against wavelength. I have labeled the three major Hydrogen Balmer lines and their wavelengths. Equipment: 80mm Vixen apo refractor piggybacked onto the LX200GPS, a SPC900 video cam, a 100 line/mm spectral grating, and RSpec analysis and processing software. Seeing was not particularly good, so there is some baseline artifact in the smoothness of the curve. This the average of 150 frames.
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Patrick Holland
10/5/2011 5:40:58 PM
This is a test image of NGC7635 AKA the Bubble Nebula. It is a test of brand new equipment and new techniques. Starting with the mount, Orion Sirius. As the first time I have dabbled with the mount after owning it for a year, I am very pleased with it's performance. The scope: Explore Scientific 102mm APO. A very nice scope at F7. The camera: Starlight Xpress H18, Starlight Xpress slimline filter wheel and OAG with the Loadestar. The filter: Baader HA filter. This test image is a set of 7 - 10 minute lights, 2 darks, 6 flats and 6 bias frames, all of it in Hydrogen Alpha. Processed in Images Plus 3.82. No cropping just reduced in size. I plan to add more time to this and complete the image in HA, OIII and SII before the month is over.
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Jim Aldrich
10/3/2011 5:53:24 PM
NGC 891 is an edge on spiral galaxy in the constellation Andromeda, approximately 30mly distant. Its central dust lane has filimentary
features possibly caused by energetic stars or supernovae.
Journey's End Observatory
14" Meade LX200ACF
CGE-Pro Mount
SBIG STL-11000M Camera
MOAG & AO-L Guided
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Jim Aldrich
10/2/2011 1:02:15 PM
The Little Dumbell (M76) is a PLN in Perseus located about 2500ly away. Its structure is beleived to be similar to the Ring Nebula (M57) as seen from the side. This image is a LRGB composite of the best 10 min subs taken from about 8 hours of exposures.
Journey's End Observatory
14" Meade LX200ACF
CGE-Pro Mount
SBIG STL-11000M Camera
MOAG & AO-L Guided
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Patrick Holland
9/29/2011 12:16:33 PM
Here's my latest image, albeit not as good as I had hoped of M31. Taken on 9-27/9-28. The image has 49-5 minute lights, 5 darks, 50 flats and 50 bias frames. Taken with the Canon XSi with the Televue TRF 2008 (FF-FR) at an effective focal length of 384mm @ F/4.8 with the Hutech LDAP. Guided with the Meade 10" LX200 @ F8 and the SX Lodestar. Calibration and processing in Images Plus 3.82. I will either re-process this image in photoshop or add more integration time to it.
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Jim Aldrich
9/18/2011 6:09:19 PM
Here is a quick shot I took of Comet C/2009P1 (Garradd) on September 12th. I processed the comet & stars separately and then combined both images in the final composite. A nearby full Moon just added to the fun!
Journey's End Observatory
14" Meade LX200ACF
CGE-Pro Mount
SBIG STL-11000M Camera
MOAG & AO-L Guided
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