Solar System

Saturn, with Rhea, Dione, andTethys

skywardview — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:21:34 GMT

Saturn, with Rhea, Dione, andTethys

Object name / Catalog Number: Saturn, with Rhea, Dione, and Tethys

Camera (specific model): DSI II-C

Number of Exposures & Exposure length:
Planet L: 310 x 0.2200 seconds, Drizzle Stack 150%
Planet RGB: 310 x 0.2200 seconds, Envisage Stack
Moons LRGB: 9 x 0.5000 seconds, Envisage Stack

Scope: Model, Aperture and F ratio:
Meade 8 inch LX90, f/60

Filters used: Meade IR blocker.

Additional Information

Guide camera/scope: None

Image Capture Software: Meade Envisage (capture and stack)

Processing software: Meade Envisage (drizzle Luminance), Adobe PhotoShop CS2 (RGB merge, levels and curves, unsharp mask, layer masks for selective sharpening), Registax (Wavelets)

Other: N/A

Location: San Diego, CA

Geosynchronous Satellite Animation

skywardview — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:34:32 GMT

Geosynchronous Satellite Animation

Object name / Catalog Number: Five Geosynchronous Satellite Flying By Orion

Camera (specific model): DSI Pro II

Number of Exposures & Exposure length:
Blue: 36 x 10 seconds, animation

Scope: Model, Aperture and F ratio:
Celestron C80ED, 80mm, f/3.8

Filters used: Meade Blue (part of LRGB series; the Blue timeframe had the most satellite action)

Additional Information

Guide camera/scope: Meade DSI II-C, Meade 8 inch LX90, f/6.3

Image Capture Software: Meade Envisage

Processing software: Adobe PhotoShop CS2 (levels and curves, animation of 36 frames)

Other: Frames registration was left slaved to the guider and not re-registered in the animation, to illustrate the temporary guiding error induced by one of the satellites getting too close to a guide star.

Location: San Diego, CA

Mars

skywardview — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:02:36 GMT

Mars

Object name / Catalog Number: Mars

Camera (specific model): DSI II-C

Number of Exposures & Exposure length:
L: 90 x 0.0156 seconds

Scope: Model, Aperture and F ratio:
Meade 8 inch LX90, f/60

Filters used: Meade IR blocker

Additional Information

Guide camera/scope: None

Image Capture Software: Meade Envisage (capture and stack)

Processing software: Adobe PhotoShop CS2 (levels and curves, selective unsharp mask)

Other: Moderate seeing, weather limited the imaging to well east of zenith

Location: San Diego, CA

Moon - Waxing Gibbous, Full Disk, DSI Pro II

skywardview — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:46:01 GMT

Moon - Waxing Gibbous, Full Disk, DSI Pro II

Object name / Catalog Number: Moon, Waxing Gibbous, Full Disk View

Camera (specific model): DSI Pro II

Number of Exposures & Exposure length:
L: 40 x 0.0017 seconds

Scope: Model, Aperture and F ratio:
Celestron C80ED 80mm Refractor, f/3.8

Filters used: Schuler Ha 9nm

Additional Information

Guide camera/scope: None

Image Capture Software: Meade Envisage (capture and stack)

Processing software: Adobe PhotoShop CS2 (levels and curves)

Other: N/A

Location: San Diego, CA

Moon - Mare Humorum & Mare Numium, DSI Pro

skywardview — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 07:41:57 GMT

Moon - Mare Humorum & Mare Numium, DSI Pro

Object name / Catalog Number: Moon, Closeup of Mare Humorum and Mare Numium

Camera (specific model): DSI Pro

Number of Exposures & Exposure length:
L: 40 x 0.0012 seconds

Scope: Model, Aperture and F ratio:
Meade 8 inch LX90, f/8

Filters used: None, lack of IR blocker didn't seem to matter, kept histogram low to keep bright areas from blooming.

Additional Information

Guide camera/scope: None

Image Capture Software: Meade Envisage (capture and stack)

Processing software: Adobe PhotoShop CS2 (levels and curves, very light unsharp mask)

Other: N/A

Location: San Diego, CA