  |
MOUSE OVER the image to display identifying text
For a full size view - CLICK HERE
CLICK
OVER identifying text to link to a more detailed image of the object
Scope: ST80 f/2.5 Location: Laguna Mountains CA; 12 June 2004;
Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 6 x 60 sec and 12 x 32 sec Luminance exposures with BaaderIR Block
Filter; 10 x 40 sec RGB - 4 frame mosaic
Processing: All exposures captured and in K3CCDTools. Alignment and stacking was done with Registax and saved as
FITs. Each exposure set after stacking was co-registered in Astroart; some low pass filtering was applied.
Each of 4 frames were separately LRGB combined in Photoshop using Luminance Layering (or
LLRGB). Shorter Luminance exposures were normal combined with
masks of saturated areas to
desaturate and sharpen the Luminance channel. Frames
were re-sampled to 800 x 600 for the mosaic process. Four frames were color balanced and
arranged in mosaic in Photoshop. SGBNR was used lightly to smooth background of
the final mosaic.
This mosaic image was a challenging effort. The exposures themselves were guided
due to the longer exposures. The range of brightness form the bright Antares to
the very dim surrounding nebula and the IC4605 reflection nebula posed quit a challenge.
I actually did the image processing twice in an attempt to get the best result
which is presented here. Other images on this page provide more detailed views of some of the objects. Horizontal FOV is about 160'.
Scope: C8 f/5; Location: Del Mar, CA;
10 June 2004; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 12 x 40 sec and 16 x 12 sec Luminance exposures with IR Block Filter and Orion Skyglo
filter; 13 x 15 sec RGB exposures.
Processing: Images were captured in K3CCDTools. Aligned/stacked in Registax and saved as FITS. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in
Astroart. Shorter Luminance exposure was normal combined with core mask to
desaturate and sharpen the core in the Luminance channel. Luminance and Color FITS were combined in Photoshop with Luminance Layering. Color balancing and final touches in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the luminance channel and the final result. Resized to approximately 800x600.
This image was a guided image. Image was taken under fairly heavy light pollution.
However, the object was sufficiently bright and the colors came out well. I have not imaged this cluster prior to this image.
Horizontal FOV is about 16'.
Scope: C8 f/5; Location:
Dos Picos Park, Ramona, CA; 21 June 2004; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 12 x 60 sec Luminance exposure with IR Block Filter; 12 x
50 sec RGB exposures.
Processing: Images were captured in K3CCDTools. Aligned/stacked in Registax and saved as FITS. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in
Astroart. Luminance and Color FITS were combined in Photoshop with Luminance Layering. Color balancing and final touches in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the luminance channel and the final
result. Resized to approximately 800x600.
This image was a guided image. Image was taken under reduced light pollution. I have not imaged this cluster prior to this image.
Horizontal FOV is about 16'.
Scope: C8 f/2.8; Location:
Dos Picos Park, Ramona, CA; 5 June 2004; Camera: ToUcam SC3
Exposure: 12 x 60 sec Luminance exposure with IR Block Filter and Orion Skyglo
filter; 12 x 50 sec RGB exposures.
Processing: Images were captured in K3CCDTools. Aligned/stacked in Registax and saved as FITS. Luminance and Color channels were scaled and rough color balanced in Astroart. Channels were co-registered in
Astroart. Luminance was enhanced with the data from the Antares mosaic
(mostly by normal combine with a properly selected mask for the nebula areas). Luminance and Color FITS were combined in Photoshop with Luminance Layering. Color balancing and final touches in Photoshop. SGBNR was used to smooth background noise on the luminance channel and the final result. Resized to approximately 800x600.
This image was a guided image. Image was taken under reduced light pollution.
However, for some reason I used a LPR filter (Orion Skyglo). The nebula region
was not well represented in the data and stretching the data yielded poor,
noisy, and distorted results. I salvaged the image with some of the data from
the Antares mosaic. Horizontal FOV is about 30'.