100 replies to this topic

[Charlie Hein]

March 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Jim Lafferty



IC 443, the Jellyfish Nebula, a galactic supernova remnant approx 5,000 light years distant in the constellation Gemini. Imaged over 4 nights on Jan 12-13-14-15, 2008, with my FSQ106N and ST2000xm (Astrodon Filters) riding on a Takahashi NJP. 200 minutes of Ha was used for the luminance, 100 mins of SII for the red channel, 200 min of Ha for the green channel, and 100 mins OIII used for the blue channel (all unbinned, 20 min subs). Total exposure was 6.6 hours.

[Charlie Hein]

April 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - dietmar



NGC3718 + NGC3729 + Hickson 56 group

Location: 35 km north of Linz
Date: (10.2.+24.2.08-60min)+29.3.2008- seeing 7-8/10; transp. 9-10/10
Scope: 9" TMB Apo f/9 Lum; f/7 OSC
CCD: SXV H16 L: 27x10 min; SXVF M25C 27x10 min
Software: AstroArt4 image acqu. guiding, preprocessing: Maxim DL; Registax; CCD sharp
Processing: postprocess. PS CS2 and Pix InSight LE

[Charlie Hein]

May 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - dsnope



Here is Rho Ophiuchi Nebula IC4604, IC4603, clusters M4 and NGC6144 next to supergiant star Antares.

Date: 5/11/2008
Loc: Anza, CA
Optic: Canon 300mm F/4 at F/4
Camera: STL11000
Exposure: LRGB 80/35/35/35

[Charlie Hein]

June 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Dean



IC4592 & IC4601
Taken June 2, 3 and 6 2008 from Bailey, Colorado
500 minutes total exposure time
140 minutes luminosity, 120 minutes each RGB using 20 minute individual exposures
Takahashi Epsilon 180 on an AP1200
SBIG STL-11000 with Astrodon LRGB filters

[Charlie Hein]

July 2008 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - weatherandsky



On July 5, 2008 I had the pleasure of observing and photographing the stars at a local conservation area and dark sky site in Binbrook, Ontario, Canada. I imaged this scene with an unmodified Canon 40D, Sigma 17-70mm lens (17mm @f2.8) and standard camera tripod with no tracking. This is a stack of 15x20sec exposures @ ISO 800 on the Milkyway down to the tree line, and another single 20sec exposure on the rest of the landscape below to create a two frame composite. Stacking was done in Deep Sky Stacker and processing was done in PS with layers. I was really lucky that the the water was beautiful and still enough so that the stars casted a nice reflection in the water.

[Charlie Hein]

August 2008 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Kentari



The Corona with a Diamond from Siberia

Equipment and settings:
Canon EOS 40D with EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L USM and EF 1.4x Extender at 280mm f/5.6 on a photo tripod
ISO 400
24 exposures from 1/1600s up to 1/5s at 1/3rd stop interval with some frames missing due to movement. The last and longest exposure was made when the Diamond Ring was already on its way.
Combined in Photoshop CS2 using the Pellett Method

[Charlie Hein]

September 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Jim Lafferty



Here is a slice of NGC 7000. Imaged with TOA130 with reducer and my ST2000xm camera with Astrodon filters from Redlands, Ca. The mount was my NJP Temma 2. 70-80-70 minutes each of binned SII-Ha-OIII with 80 mins of unbinned Ha as a luminance layer

[Charlie Hein]

October 2008 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - cvedeler



Horsehead nebula in Orion
Taken from Farnsworth Ranch AZ on Oct. 25th 2008.

Scope: Astro-Physics 160 EDF + AP .75 focal reducer
Mount: Astro-Phyiscs 900 GTO2
Filter: None
Camera: Canon 350xt modified

Exposures:
10 x 12 minute / 10 darks
5 x flat / 5 x bias

Stacked in Deep Sky Stacker
Final processing in Photoshop 6.0, noise reduction with NEAT.

[Charlie Hein]

November 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - neutronman



Here is my M42 taken from Rancho Venado in the Texas Hill Country. I tried to go deep and pull out alot of the surrounding faint dust. I combined different exposures to protect the trap while pulling out the dim stuff.

FSQ 106ED F/5
QHY8 camera
Maxim, CS3

4 x 1200 sec
12 x 300 sec
12 x 30 sec

[Charlie Hein]

December 2008 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - dsnope



Supernova Remnant Sh2-240 in the constellation Taurus. Also called Semeis 147. There is a rapidly pulsating neutron star inside of it that is thought to be the remnant of the star that caused the catastrophe.

One of the dimmest objects in the night sky, this supernova remnant requires long exposures to capture it's wispy filaments. It is over 3 degrees wide, or about the width of 6 full moons. I used a 300mm camera lens to cover that wide field of view. With my best background levels getting within 10 ADU of the dimmest signal, imaging this object led to an education in the minutiae that degrade images. Nearby lights and lower altitude subframes led to slightly higher background levels and tossed frames, imperfect focus and wind gusts caused reduced S/N and FWHM and some more tossed frames. I used the best 9 out of 18 subframes.

STL11000 Camera w/ 6nm Ha filter
Canon 300mm F/4L lens
Mach1GTO Mount
9 x 30 minute exposures
December 28-29, 2008

[Charlie Hein]

January 2009 Winner - Sketching Forum's Finalist - markseibold



Moonrise with Saturn - Pastel Sketch on 19" X 25" format-

Tuesday night January 13th in very still air at 33 degrees F, yet poor seeing conditions, I decided to observe the moons spectacular terminator line with my 10.1" f/4.5 Newtonian and render this impressionistic and somewhat accurate pastel of the moons terminator line and as it was low and ‘warmed in color’ by the atmosphere. A 32mm Plossl was used for the general whole moon and a 12mm and 9.7mm for medium close-up details although the bad seeing (5/10 ?)did not allow much magnification.

A spectacular phase it was! I spent about an hour from Jan 13th 11:45 PM PDT till 1 AM Jan 14th roughing in the terminator and other key details, then retreated to indoors with use of a several digital photos I took through the eyepiece with a 9.7mm Plossl for close-up and 32mm for wide field for reference to recheck positions of and fill in the mare and other general surface features.

As Saturn was a few degrees above left of the moon I decided to add it in here, albeit a little out of distance scale from the moon yet showing the poor seeing conditions, I could barely make out Titan to the planets left, it is to accurate scale in apparent size to the live observation of the moon with a 32mm plossl at low power.

The paper was not what I would have preferred, a 19" X 25" Strathmore in rich blue with embossed ridge, my last available sheet. An undesired ridge-line shows through the surface. The moon was sketched at 15 inches diameter with various pastel chalks and mostly kept in the warm golden range of colors due to the appearance of it rising low in the atmosphere. I photographed the pastel image today in daylight for accurate pastel color representation.

[Charlie Hein]

February 2009 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Jim Lafferty



"Time Tunnel" inside the Rosette Nebula (Narrowband color). Imaged with my TOA130 and ST-10 XME and NJP Temma mount. Imaged on January 30 and 31, 2009 from Redlands, Ca. (Ha)SHO of 60 minutes unbinned with each filter.

[Charlie Hein]

March 2009 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - hewholooks



M51 "Whirlpool Galaxy" in Canes Venatici
Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader Mod
94x180sec at iso 1600
30 Darks/Flats/Bias
Celestron 9.25 reduced 0.63
Astro-Physics Mach1GTO Mount
60% Crop

[Charlie Hein]

April 2009 Winner - Sketching Forum's Finalist - markseibold



I observed the moon with the public on ISAN April 4 and 5 2009 with use of a Nexstar 5i. I returned home for solitary observation through my 10.1" Newtonian; 32mm Plossl and 9.7mm Super Plossl eyepieces with medium ~ good seeing conditions; light breeze at 51 degrees F, from 6 UT ~ 8 UT April 5 to produce this large 22" X 30" multiple pastel impression on black Stonehenge paper with various off-white, blue and grey dry pastel chalks. Several areas of the terminator and surface areas were rendered in detail with medium high magnification at 180X; finally adding the artists conception from the surface of the moon at bottom. -Mark

[Charlie Hein]

May 2009 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Igor Chekalin



NGC6888 - The Crescent Nebula

Image was taken during 13 observing nights in March/April 2009.

Canon 350Da(baader filter mod), 10" 1:4.7 Newton (F=1200mm)
EQ6PRO SynScan mount, 75mm refractor + QHY6 CCD as a guider

9 hours in H-alpha (Astrodon 6nm), 10 and 20 min. subexpositions mixed. ISO800
10 hours in O-III (Baader 8nm), 20min subexpositions, ISO800

34x2min @ISO200 unfiltered RGB for color stars field and "pseudo-continuum" substraction.

Light-polluted urban sky. About 4.0m visual limit. About 30% of h-alpha frames (10min subexposures) taken under the Moon.

Taganrog, Russia.

[Charlie Hein]

June 2009 Winner - - Solar System Imaging's Finalist - rumples riot:



Taken with peltier cooled C14, Astronomiks type 2 RGB filters and Lumenera Skynyx 2-0 Camera.

Image was taken on 16 June 2009 at 1723 UT
800 frames from each colour staked and processed in Registax 5, Astra Image and Photoshop CS3

[Charlie Hein]

July 2009 Winner - DSLR & Digital Camera Astro Imaging & Processing's Finalist - Igor Chekalin:



Antares and Rho Ophiuchi region.

June 21 and 22 '2009
At Crimean_Astrophysical_Observatory, during "Southern Nights 2009" amateur astronomers festival.

33x5min @ ISO800, unfiltered

Canon 350Da(baader filter mod),
Nikkor ED 180/2.8 (@ 2.8) lens with Nikon->EOS adapter
EQ6Pro SynScan equatorial mount.
Auto-guiding (TAL-75R 75mm refractor plus QHY6CCD)
Iris for calibration & stacking, and Photoshop for post-processing.

[Charlie Hein]

August 2009 Winner - Film Astrophotography's Finalist - M111



35mm Milky Way (including Sharpless 2-27)

Brendan Devlin
June 27, 2009, Martha's Vineyard
Composite of two 35mm frames
~5 min, unguided, E200
Canon 35mm F1.2L @ F/2
LXD-75
Canon A2
Self-processed in Jobo CPE-2, Unicolor Rapid E6 chemistry, +2 push-processed.

[Charlie Hein]

September 2009 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - neutronman:



This wide field in Perseus stretches from IC348 to NGC1333 (with lots of dusty stuff in between) taken at Okie-Tex.

FSQ 106EDX f/3.64
STL-11000M -20c
LRGB (200,50,40,60)
CCDStack, CS4

[Charlie Hein]

October 2009 Cloudy Nights Imaging and Sketching Contest - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - J.P.M:



Imaged in centrum of City Oulu, Finland

Processing work flow:
Image acquisition, MaxiDL v5.07.
Stacked and calibrated in CCDStack.
Deconvolution with a CCDSharp, 30 iterations.
Levels, curves and color combine in PS CS3.

Imaeged in three nights between 27.09 - 04.10. 2009,
seeing varys between 4-2,5 FWHM
Image scale 0,8 arcseconds/pixel
Telescope, Meade LX200 GPS 12" @ f4.65 Camera, QHY9 Guiding, SXV-AO @ 11Hz
Exposures:
H-alpha 21x1200s Binned 1x1 = 7h
S-II 10x600s Binned 3x3
O-III 5x600s Binned 3x3
[/b]

[Charlie Hein]

November 2009 Winner - Sketching Forum's Finalist - markseibold:



This was the largest pastel of the near full moon I have produced as yet. It was done over two nights for a total work time of approximately 4 1/2 hours through the eyepiece of my 10.1 inch Newtonain last July 8 ~ 9, 2009. It was sketched onto 22" X 30" black Stonehenge 100% cold pressed cotton pastel paper. The moons disc was rendered at 16 inches in diameter.

[Charlie Hein]

December 2009 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - bill w:



the wizard nebula aka NGC 7380, Sh2-142 in SHO
casting a spell at midnight

FS102@f/6, astrodon 5nm Ha, Oiii, 3nm Sii filters, SX H9 camera.
25x20 min each channel
10/6-11/8/09 Los Alamitos CA. bortle white skies.

callibrated, combined, ddp, color balanced in maxim (balanced the white point on a pillar). microcurve for contrast, light local adaptive filtering and high pass filter applied to Ha in maxim. then to PS for luminance layering of Ha, adjustments to saturation and lightness. gradient removal in the Oiii channel. JPM's star removal action was used to adjust the star color: pink HST stars were replaced by more tradditional stars from a bicolor image.

Sii and Oiii distributions seemed to form complimentary subsets of the HA, with Sii highlighting the pillars and Oiii surrounding the central star. Besides the pillars, there seem to be areas of strong Sii concentration in the wizard's mouth (spell?) and inside one of the wider pillars

[Charlie Hein]

January 2010 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - jacobb:



Kind regards
Jacob Bassøe
Copenhagen, Denmark
Takahashi FSQ-85
QSI583wsg, Lodestar
EQ6pro
Baader Ha, OIII and SII filters

[Charlie Hein]

February 2010 Winner - Sketching Forum's Finalist - S1mas:



Hi,
here is my entry.

[Charlie Hein]

March 2010 Winner - CCD Imaging & Processing's Finalist - AntonFarmis:



Location : Mt Parnon
Telescope : WO 105 APO TRIPLET Zenith star f7
Camera : QHY9 - QHY filter wheel
Mount : SW EQ6 Pro
Guiding : SW ED80, PHD v11
Exposure : 12x900 sec in Astronomic 2" 12nm Ha
6x300 sec RGB (per each filter with Astronomic 2" )
Software : EZCap, Nebulosity 2, Photoshop SC3.