May 2008 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Look familiar?
by Chuck Hards 20 May '08

20 May '08

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40.648278,-112.297893&spn=0.001437,0.002…

4 5

Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2 new pics and a plea for imaging help!
by Canopus56 20 May '08

20 May '08

Howard, I forgot to mention the all important "Quality estimator - Lowest Quality" [percent] filter on the "Align" tab. This controls the number of rejected vs. accepted images-for-stacking based on an abstract scalar. So, for an avi movie file of a planet or a larger number of fits or jpg images saved from a short exposure time on a bright planet, you might want to try 95% first. If the resulting filtered and stacked image looks bad, ramp the "lowest quality" value back to 90%. Repeat going down to atleast 75% until you get the best image with the highest quality filter percentage. There is no reset button on the Align tab, but you can run it multiple times reseting the "lowest quality" percentage until you get the best result. - Kurt

1 0

16% of US science teachers are creationists
by Patrick Wiggins 20 May '08

20 May '08

16% of US science teachers are creationists http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13930-16-of-us-science-teachers-are-c… Sigh... patrick

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Aristarchus plateau 2008-05-17
by Canopus56 20 May '08

20 May '08

Thanks, Tyler. It's a primitive beginning but at least it is progress in the forward direction. I figure I'll have to use negative or positive projection to get the image scale up to 300 meters / pixel - or an effective focal length (EFL) of around 6000 mm - what most of the master lunar imagers seem to use. I was also working on the terminator with Sun angles of less than 15 degrees with a low altitude Moon. By increasing the EFL and moving to targets at a higher Sun angle I expect the next batch of images will be something closer to a current prevailing amateur imaging standard instead of what could be done in 2001. Too bad the Moon will stay low to the horizon through September. - Kurt

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] 2 new pics and a plea for imaging help!
by Canopus56 20 May '08

20 May '08

Howard, I'm no imaging guru, but here's what I do. Registax works like Turbo Tax - a series of guided steps in organized in a left-to-right sequence of tabs. The following assumes you want to do some basic processing of planetary images without dark or white flating calibration. 1. The Align through Stack tabs These will work fairly automatically. One major problem with the stack feature is that if you have been capturing with a planetary web camera and have a couple of hundred images, Registax may missort the image names. This causes the images to jump during the registration process - and misregister resulting in a blurry image. By only including images with the same name format, e.g. "Myimage_100, Myimage_101, Myimage_102" but not "Myimage_1, Myimage_2, Myimage_3", Registax will properly sort the names. You can force the sort using an option. On the align tab, there is an option check box for "Show frame list". This option will show the images in the frame list and allow you to force the proper sort order - e.g. - the order that the images were taken. Multiple alignment points are preferred over single point alignments. For Saturn that might be the tips of either side of the rings. 2. The Stack tab There is a key option the stack tab for planetary-lunar as opposed to deep sky imaging. The "normalize intensity over frames" checkbox, if checked, will average the intensity of the images when stacking. This option is used for planetary imaging. If the "normalize intensity over frames" checkbox is not checked, the images will sum-stack. This is used for deep sky imaging. 3. The Wavelet tab On the left hand column you have the Wavelet filter. Sliding the 6 sliders to the right will crispen the image. You have experiment with these to see what works best with each image. It's a trial and error learning curve. Basically, I try each wavelet layer control in turn, running through no. 1 through no. 6. If the control doesn't do anything for the image, slide it back to it's default value of 1.0. Slide each control slightly to the right to best crispen in the image. Continue moving each control to the right in turn until the image starts to look overprocessed. It's an artistic preference. If you make an error on setting the wavelets, I have not found a way to reset the tab. Usually, I have to exit the program and restart from scratch. If one wavelet slider control setting is messed up, you can use the checkbox next to the slider to deactivate it. In the upper right hand corner of the Wavelet tab, there are a group of buttons to adjust the brightness and contrast of the image. I find the "Tonemap" and the "Gamma" to be the most useful. Click on the line on the graph and then drag the red circle dot around to taste. On the "Tonemap" option dialogue there also is an "activate" check box that needs to be checked to use the control. If you mess up on the gamma correction or contrast, there are reset buttons on each of the tool windows. 4. The Final tab The Final tab let's you crop, rotate and export the image. For saving the image, I usually export bmp, jpg, tiff, png and fits. Then I can tweak the image in other imaging processing software as needed. Hope that helps. - Kurt P.S. - For whatever reason, all the save as crop and rotate options on the Final tab do not work on my Windows XP. So, I usually have to do some cropping or rotating in other programs.

1 0

NGC 5907
by Patrick Wiggins 19 May '08

19 May '08

I got bored with my usual data taking last night (someone here called me a "data slacker" <grin>) so when this edge on galaxy came into view I switched to "pretty picture" mode. http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=10620&g2_page=2 I still can't get my stars down to "Tyler star size" but I've pretty well convinced myself there's no way to get tiny stars with a 4,000 mm focal length. So I've ordered a .5 telecompressor. Maybe that will help. Clear skies! patrick p.s. For those who do not receive News, a reminder that current and past SLAS members are invited to an informal get together this evening with SLAS historian Ann Blanchard who is editing the first ever written history of SLAS. The meeting will be held at the Village Inn restaurant located at 2929 South State in SLC starting at 7:00 p.m.

3 2

Aristarchus plateau 2008-05-17
by Canopus56 19 May '08

19 May '08

A misc image of the Aristarchus plateau also taken under poor seeing on 2008-15-17: Aristarchus plateau http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11303 Reference image USGS shadow relief and NIR false color image showing plateau's differing geologic material http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11305 Misc raw image http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11307 - Kurt

2 1

2 new pics and a plea for imaging help!
by Howard Jackman 19 May '08

19 May '08

Hello all, I spent a few hours outside Saturday night playing with the new digicam and took a few shots of the Moon and Saturn. I've posted one new picture of each in my gallery, nothing fancy although the Saturn picture was the best I've caught yet using a digital camera afocally. http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11319 http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11322 Just today I started trying to use Registax V4 to try and get more detail out of Saturn and maybe even some of my Moon images, however I'm having a very tough time getting the program to work as well as all the online tutorials say it should. I'm sure it's operator error, but I could use some help understanding what I've done wrong. Does anyone use this program enough to lend a hand?? I could send you some files and have you explain how to work them through the program correctly. Thanks Howard

1 0

Ealing - direct projection setup for imaging
by Canopus56 19 May '08

19 May '08

Here's the connector-component layout for the direct projection lunar images taken on the Ealing taken this weekend. None of these are parafocal. The ep off of the flip mirrors is used for targeting. Focus can then be done on the laptop screen. Direct projection basic - photo http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11309 Direct projection basic schematic http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11311 Direct projection with filter wheel photo http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11313 Direct projection with filter wheel schematic http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11315 Allen and thumb screw release points for default right angle http://gallery.utahastronomy.com/main.php?g2_itemId=11317 For double star imaging, a negative projection setup will probably work by adding a 2x shorty barlow to the end of the component train, just inside focus of the camera in each layout. I haven't tested the negative projection setup. Enjoy - Kurt

1 0

Re: [Utah-astronomy] Great New Astronomy Program
by Gary Vardon 18 May '08

18 May '08

The Google program has the advantage that you can run it over the internet without downloading software. Sincerely, Gary Vardon see my website www.wealthbuilder.wwdb.biz use gary1234 as the access code -----Original Message----- From: Don J. Colton Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 4:38 PM To: 'Utah Astronomy' Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Great New Astronomy Program Microsoft's new "World Wide Telescope" certainly competes well with the Sky6 and Starry Night Pro and it is free. It is much better than Google's version. To work well you need 1-2 GB of RAM. If you haven't downloaded it you should see http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/ Clear Skies, Don _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy(a)mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://gallery.utahastronomy.com Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com

1 0