Tales from Rama

Astronomy software

2012-02-15T22:46:00.000Z

Getting one's ass outside to set up the telescope and actually take the images is only the first part of the process. Arguably the most time consuming aspect of astrophotography is the processing that takes place afterwards. Although, it's during that stage that the images come to life. In this post i'm going to list the various programmes I use or have come across that might be of some use. This list isn't definitive and will be updated as I find other useful programmes. As I'm generally cheap, I'm avoiding paid software and focusing Open Source programmes wherever possible... :)

Planetarium software:
Stellarium
SkyX First Light Edition (came with telescope)

Capture software (webcam)
SharpCap
Orion AmpCap
D-PEN AMCap
wxAstroCapture

Stacking software
Registax (planets)
Avistack (planets)
DeepSkyStacker (deep sky)

Other useful tools to convert avi captures to jpgs or extract segments of video
Avidemux
RAD Video Tools
Avisynth

Image editing
Gimp
Photoshop

Other
Panda Batch File Renamer (rename a large batch of files e.g. jpgs)

Watch this place for updates....

My equipment

2012-02-15T12:06:00.000Z

Before we get down to serious astro-business, it's probably best I say something about the equipment I’m using. Note however, this blog is going to be very pragmatic, so in this post there is no discussion or explanations. I will explain how and why I do things when the time comes. I want this blog to be useful, and not a theoretical exercise.

My telescope is a Celestron 6SE. A bunch of specs can be found here, but the key stuff is that it’s a 6” (150 mm) Schmidt-Cassegrain with a focal length of 1500mm.

Celestron 6 SE

The aperture makes it very good for moon and planetary viewing, and the computerised Alt-Az mount is excellent for an intermediate viewing scope.

The scope is not ideal for deep-sky astrophotography due to the mount setup. In particular, as the mount is not equatorial the star-field in deep-sky observations will rotate – making long exposure images near impossible, and that’s not to mention the quality of extended tracking! Note, however, the tracking is fine for visual observation. I might have a bash at combating these hurdles in the future with a Wedge, but for the time being any deep-sky stuff will be done by stacking short exposure images, which avoid the tracking and field rotation problem. The mount is not the only problem for deep-sky imaging – the scope is very slow for deep-sky i.e. much long exposures are needed. I’ve alleviated this a little by attaching a Celestron focal reducer corrector f/6.3 – makes the scope ‘faster’ and the exposures required much shorter by ~3. We’ll explore this in due time.

One day I might buy a complementary scope for deep sky astrophotography, but for the time being I’ll make the Celestron work. This is one of the issues with astrophotography – there is no one-size fits all solution. It depends what you want to do, and my telescope does planets, solar and Moon stuff very well. Note however, NEVER EVER look at the sun through a telescope unless you have the appropriate equipment – not only would it break the optics, but it WILL blind you instantly.

In terms of other bits, I have:

9mm Meade Possl

25mm Celestron Plossl

Tele Vue Powermates 2.5x and 5x (1,25”)

For the taking of photos, I use:

Orion StarShoot Solar System Color Imager IV webcam (Good for Moon and planets)

Orion StarShoot Solar System Color Imager IV

Canon EOS 550D DSLR (deep-sky / other stuff)

Canon EOS 550D

AND, don’t forget a Power Tank to power the telescope. Batteries run down fast and ruin tracking! Needless to say, a computer is needed to capture images from the webcam and process a night's observations, but I will get to software shortly.

Watch this space – my equipment list might get an update at some point ;)

And so it begins - the astrophotography adventure

2012-02-13T18:37:00.000Z

My first new post. Awesome.

Over the, hopefully, long-term I will be documenting my progress when it comes to astrophotography. In particular, I will post my experiences with my equipment – from taking the actual observations through to the digital processing that invariably occurs once the image is on my computer.

I hope to use this blog to keep track of the things I’ve done and hopefully build up a resource for me to come back to in the future when I’m stuck or if I need rediscover those awesome ‘wavelet’ parameters.

To any guests that stumble upon my blog I would appreciate any comments or observations regarding my posts and images. I’m not doing this for science but to produce aesthetically pleasing images, where your input is valuable.

Maybe one day others will use these posts to enhance their astrophotography experience….well maybe..

Cheers,

Rama