CCD Nights !

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Amar Sharma

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Jan 19, 2012, 4:42:03 AM1/19/12
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Hello folks,

Last 4 nights I was out with my SBIG ST-8XME CCD. But not all resulted in productivity, reasonably, as I was just trying it out. I got a little hang of the basic processes involved. And here are the results you would be amazed with (obviously its the power of a 14 inch aperture and the CCD quality) !

I could capture:

--- 5 comets [21/P, 78/P, C/2010 G2, Garradd, 49/P] and barely register 1 faint [255/P] (will cross check magnitudes and reveal later)

--- 5 galaxies [NGC 891, NGC 4565, NGC 1365, M51, Antennae galaxies]

--- 2 extra-galactic supernovae [bright one in NGC 3239, and a faint one in NGC 975].


For example look at this beauty:

NGC 4565

Now on you would see this ST-8 present to you images of objects you have never heard of before. Such scientific images are always black and white and boring to look at. But thats super fun for us..and thats science!

Please do comment. Thanks, Amar.

keerthi kiran

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Jan 19, 2012, 4:49:17 AM1/19/12
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Whoa... The galaxies are awesome... And all these are just single frame photos??!!?? :-O
Wonderful!!!

Regards,
Keerthi

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Suresh Mohan

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Jan 19, 2012, 5:53:42 AM1/19/12
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14 inch = better resolution ,
Mono camera = high sensivity
But capturing photons is to do with f ratio

Sent from my iPhone
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Abhilash P

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Jan 19, 2012, 7:31:22 AM1/19/12
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awesome, amar! :)

Vinay P R

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Jan 19, 2012, 9:39:08 AM1/19/12
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nice shots.........

Vinay P R

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Jan 19, 2012, 9:40:40 AM1/19/12
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nice photos.........amar.

Amar Sharma

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Jan 19, 2012, 10:48:46 AM1/19/12
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Keerthi, it was an incomplete job. I sent the email a tad earlier than I was updating the technical details for each image. They are not single shots, but some stacks. Look at each image in the album again to know more.

Basically all the processing I have done now is remove dark noise for each frame (individually), smoothen the image, and stack them. Lots more to come after getting involved gradually.

@ Doc : "But capturing photons is to do with f ratio" --- Yes. These are taken with f/6.9. Hope to try out a faster scope sometime.

Surely black and white imaging is awesome and pleasing to the eye in its own way too.

Nikolas Hericks

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Jan 19, 2012, 12:55:50 PM1/19/12
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Hi Amar. 

Nice to see that you have the skies to image. I am so busy, so often out of town and so unlucky with the sky when I have the time. 

The comets are great!

Nikolas
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anusha

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Jan 20, 2012, 3:05:52 AM1/20/12
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wow!! awesome..:)


On Jan 19, 2:42 pm, Amar Sharma <amar_unive...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello folks,
> Last 4 nights I was out with my SBIG ST-8XME CCD. But not all resulted in productivity, reasonably, as I was just trying it out. I got a little hang of the basic processes involved. And here are the results you would be amazed with (obviously its the power of a 14 inch aperture and the CCD quality) !
> I could capture:
> --- 5 comets [21/P, 78/P, C/2010 G2, Garradd, 49/P] and barely register 1 faint [255/P] (will cross check magnitudes and reveal later)
> --- 5 galaxies [NGC 891, NGC 4565, NGC 1365, M51, Antennae galaxies]
> --- 2 extra-galactic supernovae [bright one in NGC 3239, and a faint one in NGC 975].https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera
> For example look at this beauty:
> NGC 4565https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera#5699273...

Akarsh Simha

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Jan 20, 2012, 3:19:51 AM1/20/12
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On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 01:42:03AM -0800, Amar wrote:
>
>
> Hello folks,
> Last 4 nights I was out with my SBIG ST-8XME CCD. But not all resulted in
> productivity, reasonably, as I was just trying it out. I got a little hang
> of the basic processes involved. And here are the results you would be
> amazed with (obviously its the power of a 14 inch aperture and the CCD
> quality) !
> I could capture:
> --- 5 comets [21/P, 78/P, C/2010 G2, Garradd, 49/P] and barely register 1
> faint [255/P] (will cross check magnitudes and reveal later)
> ---*5 galaxies [NGC 891, NGC 4565, NGC 1365, M51, Antennae galaxies]
> ---*2 extra-galactic supernovae [bright one in NGC 3239, and a faint one
> in NGC 975].
> [1]https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera

> For example look at this beauty:
> NGC
> 4565[2]https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera#5699273678260674130

> Now on you would see this ST-8 present to you images of objects you have
> never heard*of*before. Such scientific images are always black and white

> and boring to look at. But thats super fun for us..and thats science!

WOW! That's very nice Amar! It's very nice to see Hickson 44 and a lot
of supernovae and comets on the list of targets. Looks very
scientific.

Also, you've got a lot of detail in Antennae Galaxies (more than
visible to the eyes in a 25"). I really liked Antennae and NGC
891. Looks like the focusing or something can get better though.

Congratulations on the progress! Hope to see many images of scientific
value from you soon!

Regards
Akarsh

Hemant Hariyani

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Jan 20, 2012, 11:59:00 AM1/20/12
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Congratulations Amar!!! These are beauties!!


On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 3:42 AM, Amar Sharma <amar_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello folks,
Last 4 nights I was out with my SBIG ST-8XME CCD. But not all resulted in productivity, reasonably, as I was just trying it out. I got a little hang of the basic processes involved. And here are the results you would be amazed with (obviously its the power of a 14 inch aperture and the CCD quality) !
I could capture:
--- 5 comets [21/P, 78/P, C/2010 G2, Garradd, 49/P] and barely register 1 faint [255/P] (will cross check magnitudes and reveal later)
--- 5 galaxies [NGC 891, NGC 4565, NGC 1365, M51, Antennae galaxies]
--- 2 extra-galactic supernovae [bright one in NGC 3239, and a faint one in NGC 975].
https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera
For example look at this beauty:


Now on you would see this ST-8 present to you images of objects you have never heard of before. Such scientific images are always black and white and boring to look at. But thats super fun for us..and thats science!
Please do comment. Thanks, Amar.

Suresh Mohan

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Jan 20, 2012, 12:22:01 PM1/20/12
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Very kind. Both of u. Thanks
Suresh


Sent from my iPhone

Rakesh Nath

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Jan 21, 2012, 10:49:29 AM1/21/12
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Wow Amar

Really good images, I just think you might need a little bit of work training the focusser, but then that will come over time. But really well done. Curious what is the filter wheel configuration of the CCD?
-- 
Thanks and Regards 
Rakesh Nath
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." 
Carl Sagan

Amar Sharma

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Jan 22, 2012, 11:10:49 AM1/22/12
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Thanks Hemanth.

Rakesh, infact I perceive the focusing (as in roundness of stars) to be perfect ! Its just as good as it can get with a mechanical focuser on an SCT. I hope the expert imaging eyes here concur that the stars are well focussed, nor is there any much trailing.

These images are all unfiltered. I have not yet ventured getting into imaging with filters; will stay on for some more time with single shots and stacking them. It appears imaging with H-alpha or narrowband filters needs really long exposures. And I have yet not attempted to learn how to use the inbuilt auto-guider with this ST-8XME, that will come a little later.

But I do have a manual filter wheel with access to Baader H-a, UHC and OIII filter (suggested and purchased by Nikolas).

Amar Sharma

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Jan 22, 2012, 11:34:31 AM1/22/12
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Many thanks Akarsh.

I have got to still progress on taking CCD flat frames to improvise the visual appearance of images from vignetting.

If you try to use averted vision on the image (LOL), you might notice the faint extensions of arms of each of the galaxies in the Antennae. Longer exposure should reveal them better.

My main business is to get to astrometry, which I hope to do shortly. If I can see very tiny visual movement in some of the series of comet images taken, obviously then they will be great targets for Astrometrica software to work on.

This is the bare start of seeing scientific images. This week you are gonna see more. Will try to include some off-beat targets like Leo I dwarf, NGC 1049 globular of Sculptor Dwarf etc as targets for plain fun, and some faint supernova, comets and even asteroids for astrometry.

The 14" scope has a bad GOTO in different directions, inspite of re-aligning it. Must be due to weight or something. Will you believe...every of the latest CCD images taken, I have had to locate the field of the faint comets, supernovae and galaxies *painfully* visually in finder scope ! The f.o.v of the CCD itself is least helpful, it turns out to be a petty 13' x 19' in dimension. Having trained yourself in visual observing pays off even when using a computerized scope with flaws...

achyut

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Jan 23, 2012, 5:31:11 AM1/23/12
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Congratulations Amar !!!! Its time for you to live your dreams. All
the best :)

Amar Sharma

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Jan 29, 2012, 9:52:09 AM1/29/12
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A new one. NGC 2997:


This face on galaxy is among those much talked DSOs between Akarsh and Me, but we have observed it visually very less, maybe only once.

There is something special about this galaxy, because in the younger school days and the usual great interest in philately, I saw this first on one of the USA postage stamps.

Okay...Now inspite of after having clicked some not-often-clicked objects, I feel like its time to bring about a challenge and change in what I am doing. There's no point in just clicking images; there should be some value to it.

I would have loved to click some bright asteroids and learn astrometry, but as mentioned earlier the scope is giving me a really *hard* time due to its bad GOTO functioning, inspite of having done complete star alignment several times. I have to painfully star hop every time to the difficult positions in the 50mm finder scope and attempt to center the objects in the very small CCD field of view (fov) :-(

Suresh Mohan Neelmegh

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Jan 31, 2012, 1:32:19 AM1/31/12
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@ Doc : "But capturing photons is to do with f ratio" --- Yes. These are taken with f/6.9. Hope to try out a faster scope sometime.
i meant that if there were two scope of equal focal length but different size lets say 10 inch but 4000 mm fl vs 14 inch 4000 mm fl both will have equal signal to noise ratio , but resolution will be more in lieu of light gathering capacity
Suresh

Amar Sharma

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Jan 31, 2012, 7:48:43 AM1/31/12
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Just to let you know there are few backlogs which I should be submitting here once I am at home and have some decent internet connection.

I have taken prime focus shots of Comet Garradd with a DSLR, last week. I would be passing the RAW files onto someone like Keerthi who should be able to stack and further process them. Since I have not yet ventured into DSLR imaging and especially its processing. Hope some data could be extracted from those shots.

Some FITS images of comets taken earlier are to be analyzed in a software like Astrometrica.

As of now I am sitting awaiting for the 433 Eros event tonight. Knowing that I have gotten very restless and saturated cos of some GOTO pointing problem I will have a very hard time centering the point of light called Eros into the small f.o.v. of the CCD. Will have to rely hard on visual experience and tricks. In any case if the foggy weather doesnt play spoilsport I am willing to spend most part of the night for just the upcoming historic asteroid event, getting some CCD shots for analysis further.

Lets hope for the best tonight.

--- On Sun, 1/29/12, Amar Sharma <amar_u...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Akarsh Simha

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Feb 1, 2012, 1:43:40 PM2/1/12
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On Sun, Jan 29, 2012 at 06:52:09AM -0800, Amar wrote:
> A new one. NGC 2997:
> https://picasaweb.google.com/amar10sharma/SBIGST8XMECCDCamera#5702962898749333042
> This face on galaxy is among those much talked DSOs between Akarsh and Me, but we
> have observed it visually very less, maybe only once.

Great photo, Amar! Reminds me that I should revisit the galaxy the
next time I get to go observing.

Regards
Akarsh

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