FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: All Arizona Star Party 2007

["George Kolb" <gkolb@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul - thanks for the kind words.
My mount is a Losmandy G11 with Gemini Level 3 GTO.  The telescope is a 
Telescope Engineering Company (TEC) refractor at 140mm dia. (5.5") at 980mm 
focal length, f7.  I used both a Canon 350XT and 5D DSLR at prime focus.  
Exposures were all at 800 ISO, RAW and were 5 minutes long each.  The quantity 
of exposures varied from 6 to 10.  I used DeepSkyStacker (free program) to 
register and stack the RAW images into a 32 Bit Tiff file (HDR) which I 
processed in Photoshop.  I used a Meade DSI CCD camera (currently $99 on sale) 
for guiding with PHD guiding software (also free), coupled to a Stellarvue 
80/9D refractor guidescope.

All in all, the equipment and my process is very normal with no special skills. 
 Lately, things are coming together a little better.  I used to manually guide, 
but with the drop in prices in CCD cameras and the introduction of PHD free 
guiding software, the quality has inproved at very little cost.

I have a longggggggg way to go to even approach images like Jon Christensen's, 
Rich Jacob's or Chris Schur's as my equipment is probably 1/5 the cost or less, 
but I'm having alot of fun with the hobby.  I'd like to point out that although 
there are companies that modify DSLR's to be more sensitive to the red 
spectrum, you don't need them in order to take pleasing images.  That can save 
you $500 to 700 dollars.

Regards - George  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Paul Lind 
  To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 5:47 PM
  Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: All Arizona Star Party 2007


  George,

  Really great photos.  Can you give more details on the equipment and 
  exposures?

  Paul Lind

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: "Kolb, George (MCOE)" <George.Kolb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 10:17 AM
  Subject: [AZ-Observing] All Arizona Star Party 2007


  >
  > No report, just three images I took while attending the party.  Had a
  > great time.  My hat is off to Claude for the hospitality booth and the
  > great meal.
  >
  > With the good transparency Saturday night, I was pleased with the
  > overall outcome of the images.  These DSLR images are a work in progress
  > in efforts to reduce some of the noise.  Processing the image of the
  > Veil Nebula was overwhelming as the star field is so intense and takes
  > away from the faint nebulosity.  Any suggestions are welcome.  Thanks
  > for looking - George
  >
  > http://www.pbase.com/geokolb/image/87308160
  >
  > http://www.pbase.com/geokolb/image/87365316/large
  >
  > http://www.pbase.com/geokolb/image/87376165/large
  >
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