From: Mark Gaffney <markgaffney@mac.com>

Date: August 26, 2008 8:52:16 AM MDT

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] New Grasshopper images

Hi Milton, Nice shots-very clear images probably both because of the camera`s resolution & the dark skies you have for a change! It looks like I`ll be able to go ahead with the purchase of the C8 & colour Flea 2 camera ( I thought I`d start with the basic model with the larger pixels first) before I expected- perhaps next week. Best wishes, Mark. 

On Monday, August 25, 2008, at 12:17PM, "Milton Aupperle" <milton@outcastsoft.com> wrote:

Hi Folks;

I'm out at my dark site for a few weeks vacation and have a couple

nights of reasonably good seeing so far. I've got a preliminary

version of the L R G B import and processing code up, which handles L

RGB two file, R G B three file and L R G B four file imports and

manual alignment, so I'm using it with the Monochrome Grasshopper

EXHAD camera for DSO's.

Here is my first L R G B with the grasshopper, 4 minute exposure and

my C8 at 1100 mm focal length. This was 2 days after full moon, so the

sky background was lit up pretty good.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/DSO/M57_20080818_LRGB_MJA.jpg

The alignment of the R G B Filtered images with the Luma image is not

good because I forgot to buy a plain glass filter for the Luma hole in

the Filter wheel. So I have to adjust the focus for Luma versus the R

G B Filters and that causes the image scale to shift by about 3

pixels. I'll have to add in scaling and rotation code to the LRGB

illumination methods

I also got a Luma only image of M101 too, which is shown below using a

4 frame summed stack of 15 minute exposures, effectively making this a

60 minute exposure.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Astro_IIDC/files/DSO/M101_20080824_15min_4Frame_MJA.jpg

M101 is tough target as by the time it's dark enough to image, it

drops down below 40° altitude, so one has to shoot quickly. I likely

will try imaging again to collect color filtered images using 2x2 binning.

I hope to image M82, M33, part of M31 and M110 if weather permits.

TTYL..

Milton Aupperle

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links