Collaborative Imaging
Today I wanted to discuss collaborative imaging. Collaborative imaging is where you and some others all go after the same object and combine your data. It can be a game changer when it comes to going deep on an object.
I am heading out on a trip to Bortle 1 skies with friends for a week and while there we will be running different setups on the same object, then sharing those images so we can all combine them. We did this before too. It can take an object imaged in one night and push it to 24+hours very easily, and in dark skies that can give some stunning detail.
I have also had people reach out to me to ask about combining some of my Advanced Requests and their Advanced Requests to again, get some extra time on an object. I have even had people ask if I wouldn't mind combining my data from either Advanced Requests or taken from my own equipment and theirs, where we both share our data to get something more than what we individually acquired. Again, this can give some amazing results, especially when one gets LRGB and the other has SHO data all in a way that it works. I have also seen OSC data from one person, luminance data from another, and Ha data from a third person combined to great effect.
All of the previous are examples of collaborative imaging, where more than one individual contributes to a final dataset, and each person gets all of the data. Of course if you do process such a thing the polite and correct thing to do is to acknowledge and credit each individual, and if using an Advanced Request from Telescope Live or a request from another hosting source you should also credit them as well.
The way my group and I do it is using my Dropbox which has a couple tb of storage. I make a shared folder and everyone puts their stuff in for an agreed upon timeframe and after that is up I will check to make sure everyone has gotten all of the data out, then I will remove the folder. Another way is to set up a home based login to a folder on an NAS that everyone uses for the projects. I have even done it where we all meet at one place and everyone makes copies of the data right there. Any way you can exchange it in a way that works for you will be good, as long as all get the data from the collaborative imaging project.
It may be worth it to see if someone wanted to maybe go in on a project with you. Imagine if you and a few others booked something on CHI-3, the really expensive one, and what you could do if say, 3 or 4 people all booked out a couple hours of imaging on one target. You can also use that method with people in different places to get data and combine it as a project, and social media give an excellent place to talk about doing that. So why not give it a try! It may be a great way to spend some credits on a scope that you want to see some data from that isn't always putting out that data. I mean, you don't see a ton of one clicks from CHI-2, CHI-3, CHI-4, CHI-5, and CHI-6, so imagine what you and a few friends can do with that.
So, with all that being said, what do you think would be an awesome collaborative project? For me I think that CG-4 centered on RA 07hr 32' 15" and Dec -47º 03' 30" would be an awesome HaLRGB one on CHI-2 or CHI-4. Or maybe going super deep with CHI-6 on Markarian's Chain, deep enough to get that IFN. Again, what do you think would be awesome to get together on to maximize time on a target?
That all being said, I know many of you are here for the images, so here's a couple I've done lately with One Click data from Telescope live. Here is where you can get this data too https://app.telescope.live/click-grab/all?telescope=42&target=Barnard%2033https://app.telescope.live/click-grab/all?telescope=43,46&target=NGC%203324Now remember, it wouldn't be fair or ethical to pull One Click Observation data for a collaborative project. A true one needs to be data you own the rights to.
This blog post was originally published in our Telescope Live Community.
The Community represents Telescope Live's virtual living room, where people exchange ideas and questions around astrophotography and astronomy.
Join the conversation now to find out more about astrophotography and to improve your observation and post-processing skills!