Community Work

Community Discussions: What got you into Astrophotography?

Chantal Nassef — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 15:37:45 +0000

Community Discussions: What got you into Astrophotography?

Chantal Nassef Fri, 03/05/2021 - 15:37

Is there always science behind the pictures?

In this new format, we will talk about topics that have sparked discussions in our Facebook Community!

For this first edition, let’s dig into the stories that got the Community to start the astrophotography hobby.

The curiosity behind Marco’s post and Sean’s post are our place to start.

So what’s the drive? Is it for the lovely pictures? For the science behind the incredible images? Or the mystery of the sky?

There is no standard path. Each story is different, and the journey behind this activity is personal.

“I really like the idea of digging into the mechanics of how things work.”
Originally trained as an electrical engineer, Ron ended up working in computer software and retired last year. He really likes the idea of digging into the mechanics of how things work. For him, that’s going to mean from the innards of the cameras and his telescope to the software that he uses to process images up into the sky to understand why things glow in particular colours, etc.

“I don’t even want to know how a photo came to be the way it is, I just enjoy the beauty and the emotions it brings to me.”
Tal is a software engineer with a strong interest in astrophotography. It comes naturally for him to get the feet wet in (Astro)physics.
He has no interest in dive in (Astro)physics beyond a specific base knowledge (like knowing the difference between reflection and emission nebulae, being able to separate Hɑ from OIII, etc.).
When he started photography in general, it was to have a balance to his very technical and strictly logical work and so in photography, the aesthetic aspect is much more important to him than knowing why a photon that passes the optical tube on path X triggers reaction Y on the sensor.
Of course, it takes a solid basic knowledge (and certainly more beyond that), but since he has mastered the craft, his photos are based less on technical aspects and more on a gut feeling.
He doesn’t even want to know how a photo came to be the way it is, he just enjoy the beauty and the emotions it brings to him. This is also the reason why he actually stay away from all known forums and platforms -apart from Astrobin-, because the gap between astronomers and “pure” photographers is far too big and too unbridgeable, which often manifests itself in endless discussions, where people only try to convince the other side that their own way is the better one.

“I’m 100% interested in the science behind the stunning pictures”
Lovag started diving physics as a whole a couple of years ago. Although he is keeping distance and doesn’t get his hands dirty just yet but he watched 2 years worth of videos on several topics, so he can wrap his head around relativity, gravity, some aspects of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics.
He thinks he can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.
He is 100% interested.

“Then came star trek, and I was hooked.”
David was fascinated by the Apollo missions, the spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in landing the first humans on the Moon from 1969 to 1972.
Then along came Star Trek, and David was hooked.
He bought various telescopes over the years to dive into the night sky that looked so fascinating on tv and tried astrophotography for a couple of years.

“A hobby that can accommodate people of all backgrounds and interests.”
For Terry, amateur astronomy and astrophotography has room for everyone.
From those who want pictures that show the extraordinary beauty of the Universe that we inhabit, through those that want to understand the processes that create such beauty to those who wish to add to the sum of knowledge by participating in collaborations such as photometry and comet hunting.
His drive is a desire to understand how things work, but he recognizes that not everyone is the same.
Terry says amateur astronomy and astrophotography is, fortunately, a hobby that can accommodate people of all backgrounds and interests.

“I dig into the physics all the time.”
Marco, Founder of Telescope Live, is an astrophysicist by training. After he started his astronomy studies, he got into astrophotography, so he digs into physics all the time.
In shaping the vision for Telescope Live's future as the new home for astrophotography (and astronomy!), it is fascinating to hear how much the Community dig into the physics that’s behind the stunning images posted in the Gallery.

“Isn’t always some science behind every pretty picture?” Says Valter

Indeed, astrophotography is at the interface between the art of photography and the science of astronomy. We began addressing this aspect with the Academy (https://telescope.live/academy). We started to publish several articles about the night-sky objects we can see with our telescopes and some foundation in astronomy.

Image credit:
From Sean Davis post; Ngc 2359 Thor's Helmet from Pro datasets, Telescope Live

Community Work: Andromeda Galaxy

Chantal Nassef — Sun, 16 Aug 2020 14:01:07 +0000

Community Work: Andromeda Galaxy

Chantal Nassef Sun, 08/16/2020 - 14:01

The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a barred spiral galaxy, located approximately 2.5 million light-years (770 kiloparsecs) from Earth: the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way.

This spiral galaxy, like the Milky Way, contains a concentrated bulge of matter in the middle, surrounded by a disk of gas, dust, and stars and an immense halo.

The virial mass of the Andromeda Galaxy is of the same order of magnitude as that of the Milky Way, at 1 trillion solar masses. The mass of either galaxy is difficult to estimate with any accuracy, but it was long thought that the Andromeda Galaxy is more massive than the Milky Way by a margin of some 25% to 50%.

Andromeda Galaxy by Ian Howarth

The Andromeda galaxy is the brightest galaxy you can see. The Andromeda Galaxy's mass is estimated to be around 1.76 times that of the Milky Way Galaxy.

Telescope: SPA - 1 (Takahashi FSQ-106ED 106 mm)
Filters: L, R, G, B
Processing: Pixinsight

Andromeda Galaxy by Kush Chandaria

M31 - The Andromeda Galaxy!! Shot in LRGB.

1x600s L
1x600s R
1x600s G
1x600s B

Total Integration - 40mins

Telescope: SPA-2 (Officina Stellare 70cm)
Filters: L R G B
Processing: Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop.

Andromeda Galaxy by Alexander Curry

A single image run of the Andromeda Galaxy using an observing request template
Great results from the SPA-3 Telescope of the Andromeda Galaxy considering the total integration time is just 12 minutes

1 x 180s LRGB

Telescope: SPA - 3 (Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 106 mm)
Filters: L R G B
Processing: Pixsinsight

Andromeda Galaxy by Stefan Asp

This is my very first image with Telescope Live, SPA-3 and post-processing in PixInsight.

Telescope: SPA-3 (Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4)
Filters: L, R, G, B
Processing: PixInsight

Andromeda Galaxy by Rip Smith

My first image on Telescope.live. A great learning experience and I am quite pleased with the image.

Telescope: SPA-3 (Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4)
Filters: R-G-B
Processing: FitsLiberator + Photoshop

How to see the Andromeda Galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy is the most distant thing you can see with your eye alone and can be seen in our sky for much of every year. Every August, it’s ascending in the sky during the evening hours. To the naked eye, it looks like a fuzzy patch.

With larger telescopes, it is possible to see a lot of globular clusters and HII regions in the galaxy. In the southwestern part of Andromeda Galaxy lies NGC 206, a stellar association that is visible in medium to large telescopes.

An amateur telescope can reveal Andromeda's disk, some of its brightest globular clusters, dark dust lanes and the large star cloud NGC 206.

Andromeda Galaxy can be seen at its best view using our telescopes located in Spain.

Observe Andromeda Galaxy with a Wide-Field Telescope located in Spain

- 14 min exposure for 16 credits
- 1h 20min exposure for 120 credits

Have you spotted Andromeda galaxy using Telescope Live's telescope yet? Post your pictures in our Gallery

Community Work: The Carina Nebula

Chantal Nassef — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 12:43:12 +0000

Community Work: The Carina Nebula

Chantal Nassef Fri, 08/07/2020 - 12:43

The Carina Nebula, large, complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina observed and processed by Telescope Live Community

The Carina Nebula (catalogued as NGC 3372; also known as the Grand Nebula, Great Nebula in Carina, or Eta Carinae Nebula) is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm.

Located approximately 8,500 light-years (2,600 pc) from Earth, this emission nebula (so-called because it emits light) is one of the largest that can be observed from Earth

The Carina Nebula was discovered by the astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1752. He first observed it from South Africa. Since that time, the expansive nebula has been studied intensely by both ground-based and space-based telescopes. Its regions of star birth and star death are tempting targets for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and many others.

Carina Nebula by Scheer Jan

Eta Carina Nebula by Scheer Jan

The Carina Nebula is a beautiful emission nebula in the Southern night sky. It is a large, complex area of bright & dark nebulosity. The brightest star in the center left of the image is Eta Carinae, with the Keyhole nebula visible on top of it.

Exposure time: 8 x 300s with LRGB-filters.

Telescope: CHI-2 (ASA500N, 50cm)
Filters: Astrodon LRGB
Processing: ChileAstroPixelProcessor & Photoshop CC (incl. AstroPanel 4.2 & Astronomy Tools plug-ins)

Eta Carina Nebula by Scheer Jan

Hubble palette image (SHO) of the Carina Nebula, NGC 3372.

Exposure time 30:60:60min with SII, Ha and OIII filters.
(3 to 6 subs of 10 min with each filter, bin 1)
Filters: SHO;

Telescope: CHI-2 (ASA500N, 50cm)
Filters: SHO
Processing: AstroPixelProcessor, Photoshop CC (incl. AstroPanel 4.2 & Astronomy Tools plug-ins), Topaz Denoise

Eta Carina Nebula by Nick Szymanek

Eta Carina Nebula by Nick Szymanek

The Eta Carinae Nebula shot with narrowband filters and processed using the Hubble palette.

5 x 10-min exposures per filter.

Telescope: AUS-2 Takahashi FSQ-106
Filters: Hydrogen-alpha, Oxygen-III, Sulphur-II
Processing: Maxim DL, PixInsight, Photoshop

Eta Carina Nebula by Adam Block

Eta Carina Nebula by Adam Block

Telescope: AUS-2 Takahashi FSQ-106ED
Filters: AstroDon Gen II
Processing: PixInsight (guided tutorial here)

Eta Carina Nebula by Mohamad Yassine

Eta Carina Nebula by Mohamad Yassine

This is just 2 hours worth of data. The Carina nebula can only be seen from the southern hemisphere and I hope to one day get this image with my own telescope. I got some time on AUS-2 to get this image. I guess it goes to show you the difference between taking images from a dark sky and the city.

I used some of the newer techniques I've been developing for reducing the stars and making sure they're not bloated and overpowering. As well as some new tools and techniques for removing the noise and bringing out the finer structures. In the end I don’t know it just turned amazing, you can see the oxygen clouds floating over the hydrogen and sulfur clouds, and all the fine details around the Gabriela Mistral nebula down in the lower right-hand side, it almost looks like hair. This is definitely one that I will be printing.

Telescope: AUS-2 Takahashi FSQ-106ED
Filters: Astrodon SII 3nm , Astrodon OIII 3nm , Astrodon Ha 3nm
Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop CC

Carina Nebula by Peter Jenkins

Carina Nebula by Peter Jenkins

The Carina Nebula NGC 3372 (sometimes known as Eta Carinae Nebula) - a large complex area of bright and dark nebulosity in the constellation Carina. It is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm and is approximately 8,500 light-years from Earth.

Telescope: CHI-2 ASA 500 f3.6
Filters: Astrodon 3nm Ha, OIII and SII
Processing: PixInsight and Photoshop CC

Carina Nebula by John Tipton

Carina Nebula by John Tipton

Center of NGC3372, The Carina Nebula. Image is a composite of a false color Ha-synthG-OIII and a normal color RGB image.

Telescope: ASA 500mm
Filters: Ha, OIII, R, G, B
Processing: CCDStack and Photoshop

How to Observe and Process the Carina Nebula

Observers with good-sized telescopes can spend a lot of time exploring the Trumpler clusters, the Homunculus, Eta Carinae, and the Keyhole region at the heart of the nebula.

Eta Carina: From Request Submission to Image Processing

In this tutorial, astrophotographer Adam Block guides you through the workflow of creating a stunning colored wide field astrophotography picture of Eta Carina, obtained with AUS-2, a Takahashi FSQ-106. You will be guided from the initial steps of submitting a request to the Telescope Live network, to downloading and processing the images with PixInsight.

The dataset used in this tutorial can be downloaded by clicking on the link "Associated dataset" below.

by Adam Block | 6 videos | 1h 15m Level: Standard | Software used: PixInsightPlanning and Submitting the Request

Eta Carina Nebula with DeepSkyStacker & Photoshop

A short introduction video tutorial on how to process Eta Carina with PixInsight and Photoshop, using images obtained with the Telescope Live ASA 500N telescope located in Chile.

Note that there is a companion tutorial that uses DeepSkyStacker instead of PixInsight.

The associated dataset contains only three 10 min images per filter (Halpha, SII, OIII), for a total cost of less than 100 credits

by Peter Jenkins | 1 video | 0h 16m | Level: Standard | Software used: Fits Liberator, DeepSkyStacker, Photoshop

Eta Carina Nebula with PixInsight & Photoshop

A short introduction video tutorial on how to process Eta Carina with PixInsight and Photoshop, using images obtained with the Telescope Live ASA 500N telescope located in Chile. Note that there is a companion tutorial that uses DeepSkyStacker instead of PixInsight. The associated dataset contains only three 10 min images per filter (Halpha, SII, OIII), for a total cost of less than 100 credits. The data that Peter collected using our facility at El Sauce is being made available for others to practice the techniques shown in these tutorials.

by Peter Jenkins | 1 video | 0h 26m | Level: Standard | Software used: PixInsight, Photoshop

Want to be featured in our blog? Upload your image obtained with our telescopes in the Telescope Live Gallery

Farewell comet 2I/Borisov

GIannantonio MIlani — Fri, 08 May 2020 14:11:54 +0000

Farewell comet 2I/Borisov

GIannantonio MIlani Fri, 05/08/2020 - 14:11

Fig 1 Comet 2I/Borisov on December 10, 2019 taken with the CHI1 Telescope, El Sauce Observatory.

Since Isaac Newton explained the motion of the planets around the Sun, there was a heated debate around the nature of comets. Their movement that departs so markedly from that of the planets, on orbits randomly oriented, suggests that they could have an interstellar origin.

We now are aware that things are a bit different, and most observed comets are a remnant of the Solar System formation. Their study is precious to investigate the planetary composition and on the origin of life on Earth. But we also know that comets coming from the outer space were long overdue as all modern theories predict that a large number of small bodies populate the interstellar space. One observational limit is that the probability of having a close encounter with Earth is low, but it was only a matter of time.

Surprisingly in two years the apparition of two extrasolar objects broke this long wait: 1I/’Oumuamua, classified as an asteroid, and 2I/Borisov a small comet. Two samples of small alien bodies!

As soon as the extrasolar nature of comet Borisov was explicit, it polarized the attention of the astronomical community worldwide. The comet was not well placed for observations, and it was not bright. It was very soon apparent that it could not brighten more than magnitude 15-16 at perihelion. But It was also a unique opportunity, and the CARA Project, a European network of advanced amateur astronomers, ran a specific observing campaign immediately to monitor the behaviour of this alien visitor. It was not an easy task for small size instruments, but a large number of observations were obtained with telescopes ranging from 30 to 80 cm aperture. We made a great effort to get images good enough for our research plan.

Because of bad weather conditions and technical issues comet Borisov could not be observable from the Telescope Live Network until December 2019, when it moved toward Southern declinations and became a good target for the 60 cm CHI1 telescope at El Sauce Observatory. This telescope was particularly well suited for monitoring the comet having a very good optical performance with an optimal 0.62”/pixel image scale, and being equipped with a complete filter setup and a high quality CCD camera. Furthermore the El Sauce Observatory site granted a perfect dark sky with good seeing and clear sky over most nights during the year. Erik Bryssink, Ernesto Guido and I planned immediately several observations to extend the survey on the comet.

Fig 2 Comet 2I/Borisov on December 11, 2019 taken wth the CHI1 Telescope, El Sauce Observatory

Fig 3. Comet 2I/Borisov on January 1, 2020 taken wth the CHI1 Telescope, El Sauce Observatory

It was effortless to place the observing requests on the Telescope Live platform as well to access the images for download in a short time after the observing run. These observations proved very important to monitor the comet after perihelion, while it was receding from the Sun and was no more observable from the Northern hemisphere.

The goal was to get photometric measurements to be related to the dust production rate of the comet through the Af[rho] quantity. An impressive result was that the dust production rate appeared nearly constant during the five months of monitoring, with only a possible slight fading trend.

Fig 4 The photometric data obtained by the CARA observers team from September 2019 to January 2020. New values are affected by poor observing conditions with the comet visible in twilight and at a low elevation above the horizon. The data refers to the Afr quantity related to the dust production rate. The average accuracy in the measurements is no great due to the low brightness of the comet during the whole apparition. Still, the long term behavior is clearly shown in the plot, with a slightly decreasing trend that matches perfectly the results obtained from the dust tail analysis performed on images taken at the TNG telescope.

This data was eventually entered into a professional paper by Gabriele Cremonese (INAF, Padua Astronomical Observatory) and Marco Fulle (INAF, Trieste Astronomical Observatory) and collaborators, based on deep accurate images and spectra obtained at the 3.58m TNG (Telescopio Nazionale Galileo) Island of San Miguel de La Palma. Our data helped to constraint the results in order to build a detailed model of the dust environment of the first observed extrasolar comet.

Fig 5. The paper appeared on the Astrophysical Journal Letters with the relevant results on comet 2I/Borisov, obtained also thanks to Telescope Live

A great success and a relevant result on the first extrasolar comet where Telescope Live contributed to extend the monitoring while the comet was fading away. And also to CHI1 to give our last farewell to comet Borisov while it was turning away again toward the interstellar space.

Fig6 the last image of Comet 2I/Borisov on January 28, 2020 taken wth the CHI1 Telescope, El Sauce Observatory.

New Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN)

Ernesto Guido — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 11:06:07 +0000

New Comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN)

Ernesto Guido Wed, 04/29/2020 - 11:06

Until a few weeks ago, the hopes of comet observers and astronomy enthusiasts in general around the world were placed on the comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS).

Between the end of February and the beginning of March comet ATLAS was brightened toward a glorious peak magnitude to become a naked-eye comet. Unfortunately images taken at the end of March showed clear evidence of the fragmentation of this comet. As a result ATLAS comet started to slowly fading and becoming more diffuse. So, sadly, the initial expectations are meant not to come true.

While comet C/2019 Y4 (ATLAS) continued to slowly fade and losing fragments, a new player entered the field. While looking at images obtained by the Solar Wind Anisotropies (SWAN) camera on the Solar and Heliospheric Observer (SOHO) spacecraft, M. Mattiazzo noted a possible comet and reported it to Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT) and to the Minor Planet Center (MPC).

The object was posted on the "The Possible Comet Confirmation Page" waiting for other observers to confirm it.

I performed, together with Marco Rocchetto & Adriano Valvasori, follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage through the Telescope Live network.

Telescope Live has telescopes placed in different parts of the world and we were able to image this new comet both from Chile (X02 Mpc code) and from Australia (Q56 MPC code)

Stacking of 3 unfiltered exposures, 30 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 11.4 from X02 (Telescope Live, Chile) through a 0.6-m f/6.5 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 5' in diameter and a tail 6' long in PA 220. Total magnitude 8.4.

Stacking of 3 unfiltered exposures, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2020, April 11.7 from Q56 (Telescope Live, Australia) through a 0.1-m f/3.6 astrograph + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a compact coma about 8' in diameter and a tail 25' long in PA 220.

CBET 4750 & 4752 & MPEC 2020-G94 circulars, issued on 2020, April 13, announced the official discovery of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN). The total magnitude at the moment of discovery was about 8.4 as measured on our images.

Below you can see our image taken from Australia:

Below you can see a graph showing the C/2020 F8 (SWAN) predicted magnitude (in red) versus the maximum height (for Northern Hemisphere).

Preliminar orbit has the comet 0.4 AU from Sun with a peak magnitude at about 3 mag. at the end of May 2020! (as always with comets, the future magnitudes reported here are only indicative). Elongation will start to decrease at the beginning of May 2020 and it will be about 20 degrees at the peak magnitude. This Swan comet will be visible in extremely low sky in late May for Northern Hemisphere with a maximum height of 3-4 degrees from the horizon (with the Sun at -18 degree on the horizon). Then the comet will appear in the morning sky at 11.5 mag in August and it will be observable in good condition after that while fading.

The latest visual magnitude estimates have it at about 5.8 on April 28. Will this comet meet expectations or it will begin its descent before reaching its coveted peak? We'll only find out by observing!

Ernesto Guido

http://remanzacco.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/comets77
http://app.telescope.live/

Narrowband Magenta Star Correction

Reggie Jones — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 03:01:43 +0000

Narrowband Magenta Star Correction

Reggie Jones Wed, 12/11/2024 - 03:01

There are times when processing narrowband data into an image, your stars have a weird shade of magenta / pink instead of white. There is a pixel math calculation that will solve this.

To create the calculation / program in Pixel Math, you first need to understand that PixInsight uses the following notation to define the separate RGB color channels. RGB in Pixel Math is defined as:

T(0) = Red channel / pixels

T(1) = Green channel / pixels

T(2) = Blue channel / pixels

Knowing this, the calculations can be made a follows. First, uncheck “Use single RGB/K expression”. This will allow you to create separate expressions in the Red, Green and Blue channels.

For the Red channel, insert this expression

For the Green channel, insert this expression

For the Blue channel, insert this expression

Create a process icon from this and save it to your process icons. You’ll now be able to correct narrowband stars that have the magenta / pink shade instead of white.

PHD2 Guiding (Updated 2024)

Reggie Jones — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 23:31:07 +0000

PHD2 Guiding (Updated 2024)

Reggie Jones Sun, 12/08/2024 - 23:31

This is an update to a previously published article I did on auto guiding, specifically using PHD-2.

One of the basic skills I did not fully appreciate when I first waded into the deep pool of astro imaging was guiding. The primary reason in my humble opinion that we can currently do long exposure, deep sky astro photography relatively cheaply is through the use of a guide camera and the associated software. There are mounts that are able to track targets for deep sky astro imaging without the use of a guider, but at least for me they are well out of the range of my financial resources.

Guiding is used to help correct the tracking imperfections inherent in your mount. These errors are low frequency errors in your mount’s gearing system. These are both periodic errors and random errors. You should also understand that, as hard as we try we are still not able to get the perfect polar alignment. Then there’s the problem with atmospheric refraction playing tricks by shifting your apparent position.

The basic idea for guiding is to have a separate imaging sensor in the field of view of the your primary camera’s imaging sensor. The separate guiding camera is used to monitor a star’s movement and give commands back to the mount to hold that star in the same fixed position on the guide camera’s imaging sensor. If the mount’s polar alignment is solid, the only movement corrections that need to be made are in the axis of right ascension, adjusting the mount’s tracking speed to stay consistent with the earth’s rotation. To prevent problems with slack in the gears or with backlash, the guiding software will usually make all the adjustments in the same direction.

PHD-2 is the standard for guiding software, created by a man named Craig Stark who open sourced the software so improvements it could be used by as many platforms as possible. It is almost laughably easy to use which is incorporated in the name itself - PHD stands for “Push Here Dummy”. There are a lot of tutorials out there explaining how to use it; the best one I’ve seen comes from Star Stuff by Dylan O’Donnell. I’ve attached the link here.

When I’m doing an imaging session, I get stressed out over making sure I have good focus for my sub exposures and on guiding. I spend most of my time keeping a close eye on how my guiding is going. If your guiding is off, your stars will probably not be the pinpoints of light you need to have and your target will have problems that will be difficult to fix. As easy as PHD-2 is to use there are some things to keep in mind to get the best out of it…

Read through the manual; the latest updated manual can be downloaded from the PHD-2 website via the Documentation tab. This will save you a lot of painful lessons later.

Use the setup wizard to get your equipment and equipment profile properly set up.

Take the time to get your guide scope focused properly. If the stars aren’t focused properly, you will have problems getting a good guiding calibration and subsequently any good guiding.

Use the Multi-star guiding feature found in the Guiding tab. All you need to do is check the box as shown in the tab. Multi-star guiding will be much more accurate than single star guiding. Also make sure Auto restore calibration is checked in the Guiding tab. With this checked, you will not need to do another calibration as long as you do not move the equipment. This will automatically load the most recent calibration information to your mount to use every time it is connected. This is invaluable for those of us who have a semi-permanent setup and do not move the equipment for long periods of time. Its also valuable for those who are imaging over multiple successive nights.

Use the Calibration Assistant to calibrate your guiding properly. It will slew your telescope / guide scope to the best position a few degrees east or west of the meridian to calibrate so make sure the equipment is clear of anything that might obstruct it.

Get the PHD2 Log Viewer. You can use this tool to review the guide log from your night of imaging to identify any problems you may have had and correct them. It's also found at the bottom of the website.

Select the Predictive PEC guide algorithm for Right Ascension (RA) in the Algorithms tab. This will use Predictive Error Correction for guiding in RA and help improve your guiding accuracy in RA.

ICC Profile Transformation

Reggie Jones — Sun, 01 Dec 2024 02:30:42 +0000

ICC Profile Transformation

Reggie Jones Sun, 12/01/2024 - 02:30

I wasn't aware of this process until recently and after I was instructed to use it on my final image, it is quite a useful tool to use and I'll pass one what I know. The ICC Profile Transformation is the process of converting an image's color values from one color space to another using an ICC (International Color Consortium) profile. This allows the software to accurately represent colors on different devices by applying the necessary color adjustments based on the characteristics of the input and output devices described in the ICC profile. You can find detailed information the International Color Consortium here (https://www.color.org/index.xalter) and the profiles they manage are found here (https://www.color.org/profiles2.xalter).

To use the ICC Profile Transformation process in PixInsight, see the selection tree below:

After selecting it, the window opens as you see it below. Select the image you wish to apply it on in the Source Profile; for the Target Profile, there are a number of available ICC profiles to choose from but unless you know or are familiar with them, the one that I would recommend always using is the one selected below - sRGB IE61966-2.1 . Leaving all the other selections as they are, simply apply the process to the image.

You will not see anything really happen after you apply it but when you publish your image, it should always be displayed with the colors as you intended them in the image on anyone's computer screen.

Get Inspiration from the Telescope Live Gallery

Scotty Bishop — Sun, 28 Jul 2024 00:50:38 +0000

Get Inspiration from the Telescope Live Gallery

Scotty Bishop Sun, 07/28/2024 - 00:50

I like to look at the Telescope Live gallery nearly every day to see what others are working on, and sometimes seeing what others have posted inspires me to take a crack at what they posted. For instance, a recent Telescope Live Image of the Day was the Rho Ophiuchi region that was taken with the old CHI-5-CCD setup before it was retired.

You can still download the existing data, but as with any of the retired scopes you can't make new requests on them. Part of that is due to the change in technology that Telescope Live went to and how scheduling on some of the scopes was shared and couldn't always be booked easily, plus it was so easy to lose out if the weather was bad on some of them. I know I have done that with advanced requests when those were still active!

Still, it is very much worth going through some of the older stuff at times because while now we may have better technology with the type of camera used on the telescopes that are active on Telescope Live, that doesn't mean that some of the older data is no good. There is definitely data in there that is good enough to have gotten me the AAPOD before and the IOTD on Astrobin as well. Plus it is all easy enough to get a bunch of observatiosn over different times with some of it, and you can even combine more than one of the older telescopes and some of the new stuff as well!

Back to being inspired by some of the gallery images using older data that I already had and may not have used yet, the Rho Ophiuchi one with CHI-5-CCD was one of those. I combined all of the IC 4592 Panel 1 data and the IC 4605 data, using only the RGB components of it, and it looks amazing. I even went ahead and posted it in the gallery at Telescope Live, and hopefully it may inspire someone else to grab that data and then post their version in the gallery as well!

Go ahead and browse the gallery and if you see something you like give it a try. If you see something in the Telescope Live One Click Observations you may think people have missed why not give that a try and then post it in the gallery here too. https://telescope.live/gallery

Starnet++ GUI for WIndows - An Easy Way to Remove Stars

Scotty Bishop — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 03:23:39 +0000

Starnet++ GUI for WIndows - An Easy Way to Remove Stars

Scotty Bishop Thu, 06/20/2024 - 03:23

I occasionally try out different software to see if anything can make my workflows better for astrophotography processing, and I decided to try out the Starnet++ standalone app for Windows computers since it has a GUI and looked like it would be pretty easy to use.

As some of you are aware, when I process images with a lot of dust or with nebulae, especially the faint stuff, I like to use a starless image to push the background stuff without blowing out stars and galaxies. I pretty well always use Photoshop when I do this too. Unfortunately there is only one direct plugin that removes stars, and while it is good, not everyone is able to purchase it. This is where Starnet++ comes in.

You can get it from here: https://www.starnetastro.com/download/

Make sure you go to the bottom of the page past the PI plugins and the CLI versions if you want to get to the Windows GUI version. Download it, unzip it, and you should see the following in the folder.

This has the everything you need to use it as a standalone. Make sure to take a look at the readme.txt file since it does have some important information for you in it. It even has test data so you can make sure it works too.

After you have followed the directions you should be ready to use it. It honestly is almost self explanatory. 16 bit tif files are the only ones supported, which if you are using Photoshop is perfectly fine since that is the best to use in Photoshop.

To use my technique for processing nebulae and dust you will first need to make a copy of your 16 bit tif and then rename it something like "starless layer" and then run it through StarNet++ and when done you will have a nice starless working layer.

Now open the original and lightly stretched version and the starless version in Photoshop or your favorite photo editor. Do your heavy stretching and enhancement on the starless image. Make sure to clean up any residual star light and do any noise reduction you need to do. After you finish this paste this over your star layer and change the layer type to either lighten or screen (be careful with screen because it can easily blow things out or add too much noise) if using Photoshop. Then use the fill and opacity sliders to get what you want with it.

There you have it, a nice, free, and very easy to use method of removing stars from an image as a stand alone application. I would like to give a shout out to Mikita (Nikita) Misiura for putting in the time to make this available for free.