From: Milton Aupperle <milton@outcastsoft.com>

Date: January 11, 2006 2:26:55 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Eskimo Nebula image uploaded to files

Hi Tim;

On 11-Jan-06, at 2:02 PM, Tim wrote:

Hi guys.

Thanks for the remarks. I think shooting at f/10 helped a lot. I made the tube for my

Jaegers out of old birdseye maple flooring that was in my shop when we bought our house

(on a rack, I didn't rip it out of the house!). I used plywood for baffles and structural

support. I get wonderful contrast in a dark sky with that scope, even though the coatings

are not in great shape (the lens is about 45 years old). On the Eskimo, I first tried imaging

with the Mogg FR in place, with the Baader contrast booster in behind the FR. But the

image was too small, and since the Tak was tracking so well without guiding, I decided to

try f/10. First, I took both the FR and the filter off, but the residual color was very

objectionable, such that I bet I'd get nothing but blue-appearing stars if I imaged that way.

It sounds like you color balance is possibly whacked then?

I find that it's best to image naturally lit objects to get color balanced corrected before I do any imaging. For example in daylight hours, I'll connect the camera / filters all up (without a lens), then point the camera at a off white / gray sheet of paper and adjust it to balance gray. Then I do a screen shot of the settings (command - shift - 4 and then hit the space bar to grab the front window). After that I name that file whatever is appropriate (Flea 16 bit color LPR Filter Settings) and reuse the settings as needed.

And it's important to get any blocking filters in the path too and balance with them. My LPR Antares filter is really "bizzare with respect to what light passes through.

But with the filter in place, the color is very good. I may have to upload that M42 mosaic

without finishing it, just to show you what I mean - it nocked my socks flat off, and the

exposures were only 10 seconds.

It would be really interesting to see how well the Flea or other cameras perform with the a larger (ie 12 to 20") aperture scopes too.

Milton J. Aupperle

President

ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting

Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist

#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.

Calgary Alberta Canada T2R0N5

1-(403)-229-9456

milton@outcastsoft.com