Beautify the Witch

Using Pixinsight to make the ugly witch better. The original image was taken last December and was processed with Deep Sky Stacker and PhotoShop. The result was bad.

Now I tried to use Pixinsight and PhotoShop to beautify the witch again. More subtle colors and details are extracted. In addition, I attached two versions, color enhanced & regular. See which one you like the best.

Regular Version

Color Enhanced Version

M16 M17 Reprocess with PixInsight

Reprocess them, M16 & M17, again with PI.

PI and DSS comparison

M16 Eagle Nebula Crop

M17 Omega Nebula

M8 M20 Redo with PixInsight

As many astrophotographers used PixInsight and drawn my attention for sometime. But for a slow learner and slow respondent like me, I needed to wait until the end of academic year! Anyway, I found that PixInsight is something like PhotoShop, which is huge in functions and the learning curve is long. This is my first piece of PI work. I used Registration, Dynamic Background Extraction, Background Neutralization and Color Calibration etc. In handling this image, I found that Background Neutralization is particularly useful! The result is simply great and make the final touch with Photoshop much more easy! I also attached a comparison between PI & DSS. The DSS version was processed a week ago.

A good partner of APM-TMB 105-650: Borg 7704 Super ED Reducer

A long waited Borg 7704 Super ED reducer first light. It is a discontinuous model and I bid it from a Japan website http://www.buyee.jp/. It turns out that 7704 works perfectly with my APM-TMB 105/650. Although the back focus of Borg 7704 was not fine-tuned and default value was used, the stars at the extreme corners were reasonably sharp. There was more distortion at the lower left corner. It takes me sometimes to tune it anyway.

Date: 15-16/6/2015

Location: Pak Tam Chung, Hong Kong

APM-TMB 105/650 with Borg 7704 @F3.9, AVX, D1, 5DII, MGEN II

M8 + M20 : ISO 1600, 3mins x 25, Dark, Flat, Bias, uncropped

M16 + M17: ISO 1600, 3mins x 9, Dark, Flat, Bias, uncropped

North American Nebula: 9-7-2012 Pak Tam Chung

I went o Pak Tam Chung (北潭涌) this Monday and captured the North American Nebula. To me it is just a practice & I used two flatteners to image the North American Nebula, namely WO FLT (zero power) & the APM Riccardi Super ED reducer (0.75X). After finished the imaging with Riccardi reducer, clouds covered!!! I only got one frame of North American Nebula with the FLT flattener. So I just post the resized raw image.

For the combo of APM-TMB 105/650 & APM Riccardi Super ED 0.75X reducer

APM-TMB 105/650, APM Riccardi Super ED reducer, P2, HEQ5Pro, LVI II, 5DII (Astrodon Modified)

ISO 1600, 16 x @2mins, Dark Frame, Flat Field

DSS, PS

For the combo of APM-TMB 105/650, WO FLT flattener

APM-TMB 105/650, WO FLT flattener, P2, HEQ5Pro, LVI II, 5DII (Astrodon Modified)

Since I only got 1 frame, so just resized unprocessed photo

APM-TMB 105/650, Riccardi 0.75X

APM-TMB 105/650, FLT, resized unprocessed raw

6-6-2012 Venus Transit

After the disappointing annular eclipse in Hong Kong, finally we got a successful Venus transit in 6-6-2012! I led my students to the observation site, somewhere between Clear Water Bay (清水灣) and Po Toi O (布袋澳) at about 4:30am in the morning. We setup the equipment quick and waited the sunrise. As the transit would start short after the sunrise, we got limited time to get focusing and exposure setting ready.

As expected the angle of elevation was low, clouds ran around and the images on the notebook screen were very dim. We were anxious about couldn’t catch the important moment, the first contact. Luckily, we just made it before the transit! The imaging was successful, although some images were affected by the sky condition.

        In the past 3 weeks, I tried my best to rectify the images in terms of details, color tune and brightness. The most difficult part was the beginning of the Venus transit. It was because of the clouds. The alignment point of Registax just failed in tracking. I needed to reject those bad frames manually and tried to use different alignment points in order to get the best possible results. Anyway, I finally created this 150M pixels image! (10,000x15,000 = 150,000,000 pixels) See you 105 years later!

M45 Pleiades: A trial shot

This M45, Pleiades (七姊妹星團) was taken with an APM-TMB 105/650 with WO’s FLT flattener in 24-11-2011 at Pak Tam Chung, Hong Kong. I didn’t optimize the back focus for the flattener in present of P2 filter. The performance was good. I need to wait for clear skies to do the optimization, but the sky in HK is always disappointing. Maybe I need to use artificial star to do the optimization. Although the distance is not infinity, it gives an approximated back focus adjustment. This can save me some time during field test.

APM-TMB 105/650, FLT, P2, Canon 5DII, HEQ5Pro

ISO 1600, 5 mins x 10

DSS, PS4, cropped

10-12-2011 Total Lunar Eclipse at Hong Kong

What a wonderful lunar eclipse! This is the first time I imaged the whole total lunar eclipse. I was so luckily that the weather was exceptionally good in Hong Kong. I enjoyed the total lunar eclipse for about six hours! However, due to lack of experience, my photos were not good. I did every in rush. Now after reflection I summarized the reason of these bad photos.

1. I pointed the scope to Jupiter and got it focused with the focusing mask. It is no good to use planets to do focus. They are extended objects, the diffraction spikes are wide. It is hard to make judgment whether it is in focus. It is by all mean pick a bright star to do focusing.

2. My scope was placed inside my car’s boot for an afternoon. I guess the temperature is around 20oC to 23oC that day. However, the average temperature while I took the photos is about 14oC and the lowest temperature was 11oC. I checked the focus at the end of the eclipse by pointing the scope to Sirius. It was out of focus! According to previous testing, the focal shift was about 6x7=42um (6 divisions in electric Feather Touch focuser and each division is about 7um displacement). So I should check the focus regularly, say every 30 mins.

3. During the whole lunar eclipse, the brightness of the moon varies a lot. In my case, I set the ISO to 800, the corresponding shutter speed varies from 1/4000s to 1/10s. In addition, I need to pick different exposures for selections later. Originally I set the interval of the programmable shutter to 1 min. I noticed that I need more exposure for selection in the middle of the imaging. It is luckily that I can still make it by doing bracketing exposures for every time intervals. So it is quite an involving job!

4. The shutter speed would be slow at totality, if the ISO is not high enough. In my case of ISO 800, the shutter speed was down to 1/10s. For tele-photography, one should use high ISO. So get a low noise camera and set high ISO.

My first successful solar mosaic!

I tried several times, but failed. This is the first time, the image looks decent.
LS80T, DMK21, EQ3Pro, mosaic of 6 panes

26-1-2011 A sunspot with a scar & a big prominence

There are two sunspots and one of those with a scar. Isn’t it funny? The seeing today is bad. Originally I intended to use TV 5X & DMK 21 to do a high magnification shot, but it sucks because of the bad seeing today. These images are taken with TV 2.5X & DMK21.

LS80T, TV 2.5X, DMK21

19-1-2011 Solar Observation

The activity is low. Anyway, this is a chance for me to practice solar imaging with this new LS80T. The focal length of the LS80T is 560mm. The CCD size of DMK 41 cannot capture full solar disc in one go. Therefore a drifting approach is needed. In order to align the full disc properly, one needs to select those alignment points which appear in the whole video. Otherwise misalignment or non-uniform brightness will be resulted.

LS80T, DMK41

LS80T, DMK41

LS80T, DMK21, TV 2.5X

17-1-2011 lots of proms today

The sun got lots of prominence and one sunspot today. I tried to image the sunspot at higher magnification. But I cannot make it because I have lessons to go!
Equipment: LS80T, DMK41, DMK21

Browsing around Orion with a small spaceship Tak FS60C

I used to use my Takahashi FS60C to do visual observations at home. It is a convenient scope for casual lunar & planetary observations. However, I bought a Tak f6.2 flattener for unsound reason, Deep Sky Imaging! It has been hanged around for more than a half year. Two days ago, 28/12/2010, I have a chance to try this little spaceship. The best destination for small spaceship in winter is the good old Orion region. Here are the products.
Takahashi FS60C
Tak FS60C Flattener f6.2
40D
LVI II
350mm guide scope (A modified 9x50 finder scope)
LPS-P2
HEQ5Pro
ISO 800
Dark frame
M42 (6x6mins = 36mins)
Horsehead Nebula (5x6mins + 1x10min = 40mins)

M42 (resized centre crop)

M42 (resized 100% crop)




Horsehead Nebula (resized centre crop)


Horsehead Nebula (resized 100% crop)

The First Light of Lunt LS80THa/PT

This is the first light of LS80THa/PT. The sun is not active today. Nothing special can be seen… The focal length of LS80T is 560mm, the DMK cannot image the full disc in one go. Luckily the width of the DMK sensor is able to cover full disc, the other shorter direction is being captured by drifting. One can see there is a slight horizontal artifact in the image. I don’t know how to get rid of it.
In general, the scope deliveries uniform images for both visual & photography. The newly equipped pressure tune of LS80THa/PT is gorgeous! It just likes the Feather touch version of etalon tuning. This sophisticated design makes fine Doppler tuning possible.

My First M42

I started DSI since this summer.

http://willisao.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-first-dsi-m8-m20.html

M8 & M20 are easy targets in the summer. I have seen lots of M42 in Internet. Last night the sky condition was good and enabled me to image my first M42. In the middle of the imaging, LVI complainted several times of loss star! I looked at the sky. The guide star was not covered by clouds. Gosh! The guide scope was fogged! I have no heater. In fact both guide scope & main scope were fogged. I didn’t know when this happened. I have no cleaning kits! This certainly caused loss some contrast & resolution etc. Perhaps there is lots of room for improvement, I am very happy with this image. It marks my first winter DSI this year.
Equinox 80ED

Astrotech Zero Power flattener

40D

LVI II

350mm guide scope (A modified 9x50 finder scope)

LPS-P2

HEQ5 Pro

ISO 800

2x30s, 6x2mins, 2x5mins, 2x10mins = 43mins (Total)

24-10-2010 High Resolution Lunar Mosaic of 29 Pieces

I've been waited for full moon for more than half year since last encounter!

http://willisao.blogspot.com/2009/12/high-resolution-lunar-mosaic.html

Finally I made it on 24-10-2010!!! This is a resized version. The original size is 5261x4628. I wish I can break the world record one day.

http://www.lunarworldrecord.com/

Best 95% of 100 frames per avi files are stacked. HKT 01:00, 24-10-2010, Moon age 15.9, Equinox 120ED, Baader UV/IR, EQ3Pro, DMK41, Registax 5, PS CS4

The Harvest of Taiwan Star Hunting Trip

After a week back from Taiwan, I have just finished processing all the raw deep sky objects’ images. As a novice in DSI and an illiterate in processing DSI, I spent extra time to refine the images. Perhaps the quality of the images are average, I learned a lot and received positive feedbacks from other stargazers. The sky in Hehuan Mountain (合歡山) was not as dark as expected. It was much better than the sky of Hong Kong already. There were too many stars in the sky and made me difficult to identify the constellations. Gorgeous! The spectacular Milky Way was engraved in my mind and it was the second time I saw it. I was told that the sky in Australia is extremely dark. The Milky Way is able to cast you a shadow. I have put Tasmania in my vacation list. Hope to visit Tasmania in near future. Anyway, these are my harvest:

M31 Andromeda Galaxy 仙女座大星系: APM-TMB 80/480, AstroTech zero power flattener, Baader LPS-P2, ISO 800, 4x10mins, No flat field, No dark frame

North America Nebula 北美星雲: APM-TMB 80/480, AstroTech zero power flattener, Baader LPS-P2, ISO 800, 6x4mins, No flat field, No dark frame

M13: APM-TMB 80/480, AstroTech zero power flattener, Baader LPS-P2, ISO 800, 9x6mins, No flat field, No dark frame


Double Cluster (NGC884 & NGC869) 雙星團: APM-TMB 80/480, TV 0.8X Reducer/Flattener, Baader LPS-P2, ISO 800, 2x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame


Rho Ophiuchi Nebula 星空調色盤: Canon 135mm f/2.0 @f/2.8, Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version), ISO 800, 10x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame

Sagittarius M8 M20 人馬座天區的 礁湖星雲、三裂星雲: Canon 135mm f/2.0 @f/2.8, Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version), ISO 800, 8x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame

Scorpius M6 M7 天蠍座天區的 M6 M7: Canon 135mm f/2.0 @f/2.8, Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version), ISO 800, 10x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame

Summer Triangle 夏天大三角: Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 @16mm & f/4, Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version), ISO 800, 8x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame

Polaris, M31 and Double Cluster 北極星、仙女座大星系、雙星團: Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 @16mm & f/3.5, Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version), ISO 800, 7x3mins, No flat field, No dark frame

Milky Way 銀河: Tokina 11-16 f/2.8 @11mm & f/4, ISO 1600, 30s, No flat field, No dark frame


Equipment list:

APM-TMB 80/480

TV 0.8X Reducer/Flattener

AstroTech Flattener (zero power)

Guide scope (modified Takahashi finder scope)

Canon 40D (Baader modified)

Canon 135mm f/2.0

Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8

HEQ5Pro

LVI I

Baader LPS-P2

Astronomic CLS clip-filter (CCD version)

Unexpected weather of Hehuan mountain

Totally unexpected! The weather last night was so dramatic!!! It started with rain, lightning & thunder. After the rain stopped, the sky was clear! We ran up to a site called 武嶺 at once. In the middle of setting up the equipment, terrible fog came. Savio & I were punished to stand & wait! In the midnight, the sky was clear again. We started the setting again. There were terrible people around & they used torches!!! Anyway, the sky was unstable until 3:00am. I was on the point of giving up, but finally I got everything work!!!! These are my M31 & Double Cluster! I found that when I use the auto Noise reduction in D40, there is a dark band in the lower part of the images!!! In addition, dews were formed in both the main scope & the guide scope. I don’t have any heater to avoid it. So I can just use an air pump to rectify the problem. It couldn’t be fixed completely anyway! The lucky thing is that it didn’t cross my DSO. Otherwise, it wasted my time. Sometimes we really need some luck to take good photos. When the sky is OK, no people & car making any forms of light pollution, there was a satellite crossing my 10 mins M31 photo. Good grief! Well, I posted both cropped & un-cropped versions here. I will not use the noise reduction function in the coming night, unless I fixed the problem.

APM-TMB 80/480
TV 0.8X
LPS-P2
HEQ5Pro LVI I
M31: ISO 800, 600s, single frame, No flat frame, No dark frame (There was a satellite crossed my photo!!! I will make it again!!!)
Double Cluster: ISO 800, 300s, single frame, No flat frame, No dark frame

Double Cluster: The dark band due to 40D's noise reduction

Double Cluster: Centre Crop

M31

LVI guided stably

Our Equipment

武嶺(3275m)

The daybreak of Hehuan mountain