View allAll Photos Tagged Subframing
"Well, dinnae jes stand thar, get in thar 'n get 'im!"
"Hm. Well, Cap'n, we got a bit o sub-framin' goin' on."
"A bit'o WOT?"
"Sub-framin. Prince Valiant is framed as a shot within tha shot!"
"Aye, 'e's even focus 'n we ern't."
"I'd say that were Paprika's shoddy camera work! Wot'r ye blatherin' on aboot??"
"If ye ask me, tis a set-up fer a 'eroic scene, 'tis."
"So, it'd be a bit like suicide fer us ta go in after 'im."
"Ohhh, talk aboot knight photography...!"
"I dinnae usually trust plastic castles with purple doors in any case."
⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅∙∘☽༓☾∘∙•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅⋅•⋅⋅⊰⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅⋅•⋅
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
A series featuring 54mm scale(ish) toy soldiers from Britains, Marx, Elastolin and others.
Elastolin
Prince Valiant
Germany, 1960
Britains Ltd.
Deetail
Knights
1970s
Description: This image of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 was developed from 184x300s subs or 15.3 hours of total exposure time. The nonlinear post processed image was first split into its RGB components, followed by the application of appropriate weighting factors to the green and red channels, further followed by LRGB Combination. The resulting image was post processed using Curves Transformation with various color masks.
Date / Location: 21-23 September and 8-10 October 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: WO 50mm Uniguide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 184x300s subs (= 15.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing:
Dynamic Background Extractor (doing subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field correction) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Blur Xterminator > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing and additional steps:
Histogram Transformation > Star Xterminator to create Starless and Stars Only Images.
Starless Image > Noise Xterminator > Local Histogram Equalization > Multiscale Median Transform > Split RGB channels > Create new green and blue channels > LRGB Combination > Curves Transformation using various color masks.
Stars Only Image > Morphological transformation.
Pixel Math to combine the Starless Image with the Stars Only Image to get a Reinstated Image.
Reinstated Image > Dark Structure Enhancement > Topaz AI.
Pixel Math to combine the (non-AI) Reinstated Image with the Topaz AI Image to get a final image.
This is a colour image of this fascinating region around Orion's belt captured through an 80mm triplet APO refractor using a colour Atik Horizon CMOS camera with a Baader-S filter. I had to wait for both the sky to clear and fireworks displays around me to stop before I could take this image. The image consists of eleven seven-minute subframes stacked. Dark frames have been subtracted but no flats or bias frames used.
Peter
The Trifid nebula (M20/NGC 6514) at top with the huge Lagoon nebula (NGC 6523) below with several smaller HII regions over at bottom left.
This picture is a mosaic of two panes, each pane being an integration of multiple subframes shot with a William Optics Zenithstar 103 scope and QHY168C OSC camera; an STC multi-spectra LP filter was used. The upper pane is an integration of 236 x 180s frame, the lower pane is 183 x 180s.
Imagiing was managed via Sequence Generator Pro and PHD2, all post-processing was carried out in PixInsight.
Observed from Prachinburi, Thailand
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Photographed from mid-town Toronto, Canada, at 18.43 EST (Moon altitude: 57° | Sun 14° below the horizon)
* Temperature 4° C.
The sky was reasonably clear, with some thin cirrus cloud, when I was able to get the ten base subframes that make up this view of the Moon high over Toronto early on this mild January evening before the heavier cloud moved in.
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Nikon D850 camera body on Explore Scientific 152 mm (6") apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Sky-Watcher AZ-EQ6 SynScan mount.
Best ten of fourteen identical stacked frames; each frame:
* ISO 100, 1/120 sec. exposure
Stacked in Registax
Processed in Photoshop CS6
(brightness, contrast, sharpening on right side of Moon)
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Photographed at Torrance Barrens Dark Sky Preserve, Ontario, Canada (200 km by road north of Toronto)
* Temperature 0° C.
* Total exposure time: 6 minutes.
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Description:
I didn't have enough time before I had to pack up my gear and drive two hours back to my home in the city to make more than six subframes for this photo. I would have liked at least ten. So the resolution is not as good as I'd like it to be, but I think that it's not a bad image.
The Rosette Nebula, which lies about 5,000 light years from Earth, is located just to the east of the constellation Orion, and is in the centre of the (northern hemisphere) winter Milky Way. It can just barely be glimpsed in binoculars from a dark-sky location far away from city lights.
From Wikipedia:
"The Rosette Nebula (also known as Caldwell 49) is a large, spherical, H II region located near one end of a giant molecular cloud in the Monoceros region of the Milky Way Galaxy."
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/32743250460
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Nikon D810a camera body on Teleview 101is apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount.
Six stacked frames; each frame:
* 540 mm focal length
* ISO 3200; 60-second exposure at f/5.4; unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, levels, colour balance)
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The Heart Nebula is in the constellation Cassiopeia. We all know Cassiopeia, it’s that big W in the sky easily seen, even in the city, rising just east of north in the evening every Fall. The Heart Nebula is just below the W, whose stars are a few hundred light years away. The Heart is even further away, at 7500 light years, in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way. It is at the edge of the Milky Way highway immersed in a rich, dense field of stars. So, being so far away and so red from hydrogen-alpha emission, the Heart Nebula is difficult to see even in a small telescope. The stellar winds from the open cluster near the center of the heart (formed by gravitational collapse from the hydrogen in the nebula) has cleared out the remaining hydrogen from the center, leaving the heart shape made mostly of hydrogen at the outer edges. Those bright stars near the center are young - only 1.5 million years old (based on their spectra, energy output, and size). What’s left in the center of the nebula is mostly oxygen, colored blue in my image.
I live in Phoenix where the light pollution is much worse. However, it is still possible to get interesting images of the deep sky using very narrow filters that are tuned to the emission lines of hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur but block most of the light pollution. I then map the monochrome camera outputs of those narrowband images to my color of choice and blend them together to make an RGB color image. Since the colors are mapped, it is an artistic endeavor (my weak point) but has some science lurking in the background since the colors represent the presence of these 3 elements and places where they are mixing in the chaotic aftermath that is still occurring in these remnants of exploded stars. So, I present a new image of the Heart Nebula that I made this past week from my mini observatory in my back yard.
In this image, I’ve mapped dark orange to hydrogen, yellowish gold to sulphur, and blue to oxygen. Astronomers catalog a few different objects in this complex. The overall structure is the Heart Nebula, the open cluster of stars near the center of the Heart is IC 1805, the bright fish shaped structure at the bottom of the image is NGC 896. I
Here’s how this image was made: Sub-exposures: 187 5 minute exposures made through narrowband filters and 40 1 minute exposures made through broadband RGB filters for star color - total exposure time of 16 hours and 15 minutes over three nights. The equipment was my current set up of a Takahashi Epsilon 160ED telescope, QHY 600 cooled CMOS full frame 62 megapixel camera, Astro-Physics Mach 2 mount, and Chroma 3-nm narrowband filters. The subframe images were calibrated, registered, integrated, color calibrated, stretched, colorized and blended in PixInsight. Finishing touches were done in Lightroom.
Heart_Nebula_77O_64H_63S_x5min_241025_RQFugate
Taken in Hydrogen Alpha just before 4pm as the sky was beginning to darken.
This is a stack of 29 subframes taken through my 130mm refractor using an Atik 460 EX mono camera and 0.75 reducer.
Peter
Year of first registration: 1992.
The GTM Rossa is a Mini based 2+2 kit car by GTM Cars.[1] The car was based on two front mini subframes, with the steering being locked on the rear subframe. The Mark 1 car was produced from 1987 to 1990, and the Mark 2 car was produced beginning in 1990.
Bron: Wikipedia.org
I took this image just at the end of astronomical dark on April 10,2021 in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, USA.
The Lagoon Nebula is about 5200 light years from Earth. It is the remnant of an exploded star and as such is a new star forming region - look at all those young (1-2 million years) hot white stars recently formed through gravitational coalescence near the center of the magenta colored cloud. The nebula is an emission nebula, meaning it emits lots of light at the Hydrogen alpha wavelength of 656 nm in the deep red. Other emission lines in the blue from oxygen, mix with the red to make a brilliant magenta. The emission is produced when ionized atoms recombine with free electrons. The atoms become ionized (or driven into an excited state) by ultraviolet light emitted by one or a few of the brighter stars. One in particular, 9 Sagittarii, is nearly 25,000 times brighter than our Sun. The Lagoon nebula is one of several great examples where we can see the life cycle of stars in one image. BTW that’s the Trifid Nebula in the upper right part of the image.
If you can find a really dark place, it is just barely visible to the naked eye ( I was able to see it after the core of the Milky Way was up). It is easily seen in binoculars or a small telescope but still appears gray since the most sensitive part of our retinas don’t see color. It is often seen in wide angle night scape photos of the Milky Way over the landscape and can be easily photographed with a tripod, a normal camera lens and a few seconds of exposure. Look for a purple region.
Photo info: Subframe images collected the early morning hours of April 10, 2021 in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, with a Takahashi FSQ EDX4 telescope and ZWO ASI6200MM cooled 62 megapixel CMOS camera and Chroma filters on a Sky Watcher EQ6 auto-guided equatorial mount under control of a Raspberry Pi computer. The 18 one minute subframe images were calibrated, debayered, registered, integrated and post processed in PixInsight. About 3 hours before these images were taken my autoguider camera failed (bad cable?) so I took these images unguided but limited the exposure to 1 minute since this mount is not great. The image is cropped to about 40% of the original area.
I didn’t do any artificial enhancement to this image to “create art”. I think it is hard in a few minutes to improve on what Mother Nature did over billions of years.
As always please feel free to share any of my images.
Narrowband (Ha Sii Oiii) combination using SHO palette. Processed in Pixinsight and Photoshop, and enhanced in Lightroom.
The weather has still remained bad, so I have been limited in what I can capture (it doesn't help that it's low in the sky and goes behind houses by midnight). I processed what I managed to capture this week.
Doing 5 min exposures, 100 gain. 12xOiii, 6xHa, and only a couple Sii. Given the results from that amount of subframes, I'm looking forward to what I can do when the weather improves.
Equipment: Skywatcher Esprit 100ED, HEQ5-Pro mount, ASI 2600MM Camera, and I had to temporarily switch to .67x flattener because my SkyWatcher one has issues.
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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
between 23.55 Aug. 1 and 00.11 EDT Aug. 2
* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~70°
* Temperature 17° C.
* Total exposure time: 8 minutes
* 105 mm focal length lens
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Description:
High in the northern hemisphere summer sky, the gossamer band of our Milky Way galaxy passes through the constellations Cepheus (to the left) and Cygnus (to the right). This area of the sky is rich with red-pink clouds of glowing ionized hydrogen gas, as well as numerous star cluster and foreground clouds of dark gas.
The distinctively shaped north America Nebula in Cygnus appears in the lower right. The large gas cloud IC 1396 in Cepheus is in the opposite corner. At the upper left edge of IC 1396 is Herschel's Garnet Star, with its striking ochre-orange colour.
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/48527625751
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Technical information:
Nikkor AF-S 70-200 mm f/2.8 G ED VRII lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head
Eight stacked subframes; each frame:
105 mm focal length
ISO 6400; 1 minute exposure at f/4.5, unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance)
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These are two images of Neptune taken in the early evening of 19 November. On the left a LRGB video sequence of the best 40% of frames at 15fps for luminance and 12fps for Red, Green and Blue and on the right a stack of 400 luminance subframes at 5 seconds per frame converted from video to still images and stacked to enable the much fainter Triton to be picked up in the imaging. It has also blown out the size of Neptune in consequence although both images were taken at the same magnification.
Neptune is a tricky target at the best of times for close-up imaging. For a variety of reasons from technical equipment issues to weather conditions this is the first time I've successfully managed to pin down a reasonable image of Neptune and Triton in 2017.
Peter
Equipment:
Cooled ZWO ASI174MM mono CMOS camera, LRGB filters, 300mm f/10 LX200 SCT, EQ8 mount.
This is a two-panel mosaic of the large California nebula using my 80mm refractor and an Atik Horizon colour camera. This is two stacks of eight-minute subframes, fifteen in total.
Peter
This is the first time I've tried this target with a colour CMOS camera. It was very much a test to see how it would behave pointed at bright stars as some colour CMOS cameras have suffered from reflections and micro-lensing on bright stars.
Normally I rely on mono CCD and CMOS to get the best detail but this is one of the new generation of colour CMOS camera using a Panasonic chip and properly designed to avoid any amp glow. In this image I haven't used flats or darks although I had them available if needed.
The image is a stack of 28 three-minute subframes.
Peter
Equipment:
Atik Horizon CMOS colour camera, 80mm triplet APO, EQ8 Mount.
Manufacturer: Auto Union AG / August Horch Automobilwerke GmbH, Zwickau - Germay
Type: 853A Sport Cabriolet
Engine: 4944cc straight-8
Power: 120 bhp / 3.400 rpm
Speed: 135 km/h
Production time: 1938 - 1939
Production outlet: 342
Curb weight: 2631 kg
Special:
- The basic 853 is designed by Horch chief-designer Günther Mickwausch.
- The 853A differs from the 853 through the shortened frame (5 cm) and a renewed subframe to support the radiator. This was done, so other coachbuilders (like Gläser, Baur, Erdmann & Rossi, etc.) could put on easier a Convertible or Coupe.
- The 853A also had a new engine with 120 bhp (instead of 100bhp), a renewed front, a new front suspension with double wishbones and used a DeDion axle rear suspension.
- The most beautifully styled Sport Cabriolet of their era was although expensive, they were cheaper than their Mercedes-Benz rival, the 540K.
- Auto Union was comprised of Horch, DKW, Audi and Wanderer since 1932.
- It has a four-speed manuel gearbox with overdrive by ZF.
- This automobile could be delivered in the colour "Fischsilber" ("silver fish"), a metallic paint in four colours (contained finely ground fish scales).
- When World War II began, production of the Horch Automobiles ceased.
Added to the gallery www.flickr.com/photos/stevepoe/galleries/72157639107186833
1965 Jaguar S-type 3.8.
Last taxed in July 2021.
Anglia Car Auctions, King's Lynn -
"V5 Present
MoT Exempt
Chassis number: 1B54494DN
"Finished in Old English white with red leather interior. This desirable 3.8 litre example, with working overdrive, has benefitted from works including the front brakes, master cylinder and handbrake overhaul, engine service, re‑sealing of the steering box and carburettor overhaul. In addition, the rear subframe has been out when new bushes were fitted, both fuel tanks have been removed and overhauled, painted and weather proofed. The interior has previously been subject to a re‑trim and the walnut veneer dash and door cappings remain in very good condition. Comes with a current V5 and Jaguar Heritage certificate. The mileage is recorded at 49,931 and the car registers six owners."
Sold for £11,880 (including premium) on an estimate of £12,000 to £14,000.
Technically Messier 16 is the star cluster in the centre of this image and was one of the early night sky targets distracting Charles Messier in his hunt for comets. It is now better known as the Eagle nebula for the dark bird-like shape in the nebulosity surrounding the cluster. The Eagle shape itself is thanks to the famous Hubble telescope image now more commonly known as the central part of the pillars of creation.
This is a stack of eleven five-minute subframes taken through my 300mm f/10 SCT using an Atik Horizon colour CMOS camera.
Peter
This is a look in Hydrogen Alpha at the intriguing 'Bubble' nebula, NGC 7635. This image is a stack of eleven eight-minute subframes.
Peter
Equipment:
Atik 460EX CCD, Ha filter, 14inch f/10 LX200 SCT, EQ8 mount autoguided with a Lodestar Mk2 off-axis guider.
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Date: 14, 18 February 2023
Location: Washington D.C.
Exposure: 81x300s subs (= 6.75 hours)
Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: FITS data > Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Blur Xterminator > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: Histogram Transformation > Star Xterminator to decompose into Starless and Stars Only images.
Starless image > Histogram Transformation > Noise Xterminator > Local Histogram Equalization.
Apply a First Curves Transformation as appropriate to boost the blue signal from the galaxy's arms. Apply an RGB Split. After adjusting the weights for the individual RGB components (noting that the R serves as both the L channel and the red channel when using an OSC camera), apply LRGB Combination to get a blue boosted image.
Apply a Second Curves Transformation as appropriate to boost the red signal from the galaxy's core. Apply an RGB Split. After adjusting the weights for the individual RGB components (noting that the R serves as both the L channel and the red channel when using an OSC camera), apply LRGB Combination to get a red boosted image.
Use Pixel Math to combine 0.5 x red boosted image + 0.5 x blue boosted image to get a Composite image.
Use Pixel math again to combine 0.75 x Composite image + 0.25 x an HDR Multiscale Transform-modified Composite image to get a New Composite image.
Process the New Composite image with Curves Transformation using color masks.
Apply Histogram Transformation and Local Histogram Equalization to get a Final Starless image.
Use Pixel Math to rejoin the Final Starless image with the Stars Only image (modified by a Morphological Transformation if needed) to get a rejoined image.
Rejoined image > Topaz Labs > DeNoise AI > Gigapixel AI.
Use Pixel Math to combine 0.25 x non-AI Composite + 0.75 x Gigapixel AI = Final Result.
This is a relatively short stack of eight 480 second subframes (plus flats and darks) taken with a one-shot colour camera before the inevitable cloud moved in this evening (25th February). M97 was nicknamed the 'Owl' when Lord Rosse first observed it with one of his large telescopes at Birr. It was discovered by Pierre Mechain, Charles Messier's assistant and colleague, who added most of the later Messier catalogue items. Curiously, Messier's catalogue was actually a compilation of objects that they didn't want to be distracted by and mistake for a comet!
Below and to the left edge of M97, partly obscured by a star in our galaxy, is faint magnitude 16 galaxy PGC 34279.
Peter
Equipment:
ZWO ASI071 MC Pro CMOS camera, Baader S narrowband filter, 356mm f/10 LX200 SCT, EQ8 mount. Autoguided off-axis with a Lodestar X2 CCD.
Comet Lovejoy, January 12, 2015. This is 11 300 second subframes stacked for each of red, green, and blue channels, for 2.75 hours of total imaging.
I'm no expert at comet photography, but as a novice, I'm happy with this result.
Full Write-up here: theastroenthusiast.com/the-interacting-triplet-of-m81-m82...
This incredibly detailed image of the interacting triplet M81, M82, and NGC 3077 was created from more than 216 hours of exposure across three continents — Europe, USA, and Oceania. We combined 4019 subframes and 12993 minutes of exposure to reveal faint details previously masked by lower amounts of data. The high exposure time also allowed us to sharpen fine features, giving the image more contrast and revealing more fine structures.
On the top of the image lies NGC 3077, a small starburst dwarf galaxy with a starforming core. Below lies M81, a grand design spiral about 12 million light years away. To the right is M82, a starburst galaxy with a huge superwind triggered by interaction with M81 and NGC 3077. All around the image is the galactic cirrus, dust lit by the glow of the milky way. I highly recommend looking at the image with HI emission overlaid, which displays what of the background is neutral gas from the interactions and what is dust from the milky way.
Website: theastroenthusiast.com/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/the_astronomy_enthusiast/
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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, between 00.37 and 01.12 EDT
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
* Altitude of nebula at time of exposures: 63-58°
* Temperature 2° C.
* Total exposure time: 15 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
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Description:
This huge ionized hydrogen gas cloud lies about 2,400 light years from our solar system. The nebula itself is named Sharpless 131; the large open cluster of stars near its centre is cataloged as IC 1396 or Trumpler 37. Below and to the right of centre is a small, prominent globule that is often referred to as the "Elephant's Trunk Nebula" (IC 1396a), and is an active star-forming region.
Here is another view of this object, made with a slightly smaller telescope almost exactly one year ago:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/36698969403
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Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic astrograph, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Fifteen stacked subframes; each frame:
ISO 8000; 1 minute exposure at f/5.2, unguided
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, brightness / contrast, bright star flare reduction)
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Canon 135mm f/2 lens (stopped down to f/2.8),QHY168C OSC with Altair dual band filter,CEM60.
15 subframes of 300 seconds each stacked in Deepskystacker and processed in Photoshop CS2. Image cropped due to gradient.
Taken on night of 10th Dec 2021
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Photographed at Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada
(285 km by road north of Toronto)
between 00.14 and 00.34 EDT
* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~68°
* Temperature 2° C.
* Total exposure time: 10 minutes
* 660 mm focal length telescope
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Description:
Eight open star clusters are shown in this image of a star-rich region of the constellation Cassiopeia.
Our Milky Way galaxy contains some 1,100 open clusters of stars, which are loosely bound together gravitationally. Because of this loose nature, these cluster drift apart over time until they are unrecognizable as star clusters . Most of them are therefore only a few dozens of millions of years old.
An exception is the faint reddish cluster IC 166 in the extreme upper left of this image. It is estimated to be about a billion years old, and is still recognizable as a cluster because it is located outside any of the heavily populated arms of the milky Way. Thus the gravitational effect of other stars is minimal, and the cluster has survived for a long time.
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS and more information about the clusters in this image, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/52399315319
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Technical information:
Nikon D810a camera body on Tele Vue 127is (127 mm - 5" - diameter) apochromatic refracting telescope, mounted on Astrophysics 1100GTO equatorial mount
Ten stacked subframes; each frame:
ISO 5000; 1 minute exposure at f/8
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (levels, colour saturation)
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Description: This is my image of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 based on about 15 hours of total exposure time. The angular size of M31 is a huge 178x63 arcminutes which occupies a significant portion of the APS-C sensor of my camera. Since there are also numerous background stars, finding a relatively star-free area to do a Background Neutralization is a bit of a challenge. I also found achieving a proper color balance to be another challenge. Various sources indicate the presence of an outer bluish halo encompassing the core. I tried to achieve my objective by applying a series of Curves Transformations while protecting the background with a mask. As a side note, while numerous stars are present, I decided against applying a Morphological Transformation to reduce their brightness because in doing so I detected an undesirable ringing effect. One possible solution is to apply Multiscale Linear Transform with deringing selected. However, I have not tested that option.
Date / Location: 21-23 September and 8-10 October 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: WO 50mm Uniguide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 184x300s subs (= 15.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > Second Histogram Transformation > First Local Histogram Equalization > Second Local Histogram Equalization First Curves Transformation > Second Curves Transformation > Third Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction.
1998 Alfa Romeo 145 1.6 T. Spark.
Last taxed in September 2008 and last MoT test expired in August 2007.
It failed a test in July 2012 -
Horn not working (1.6.2a)
Windscreen washer provides insufficient washer liquid (8.2.3)
Nearside Front Lower Suspension arm has excessive play in a pin/bush (2.4.G.2)
Nearside Front Subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)
Offside Front Subframe mounting prescribed area is excessively corroded (2.4.A.3)
Nearside Rear Shock absorber has a serious fluid leak (2.7.3)
Nearside Rear Shock absorber has negligible damping effect (2.7.5)
Nearside Rear wheel bearing rough when rotated (2.6.1)
Offside Seat belt anchorage prescribed area is excessively corroded (5.2.6)
Nearside rear parking brake recording little or no effort (3.7.B.6a)
Parking brake: efficiency below requirements (3.7.B.7)
Spiral Galaxy in sculptor
Taken at home (Santiago de Chile)
GSO RC 12" on top of a Mi250 mount
Atik383L camera - filter wheel and astrodon filters
ACP-Maxim-focusmax for capture PixInsight for processing
RGB(10h,11h,12.5h) in 10 min subframes
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Photographed 20 km south of Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
(300 km southeast of Darwin, at latitude 14.5 degrees south)
* Total exposure time: 9 minutes.
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Description:
This is an ultra wide-angle view of or home galaxy - the Milky Way - in the opposite direction to the centre of the galaxy in the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius. This part of the Milky Way is not often photographed, and is challenging because it is fainter than the other half of the galaxy.
The nine subframes that were combined to form this image were captured between 04.31 and 04.51 CAST (Central Australian Standard Time), ending half an hour before the start of morning twilight.
Here is the equipment used to make this image:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/21202535154
In this view we see the following:
* Upper left: The tight cluster of bright stars is M45 - the Pleiades - in the constellation Taurus (the Bull). At the left edge toward the top is the oblong, deep red gas cloud known as the California Nebula.
* Centre of the frame: The familiar star pattern of the constellation Orion (the Hunter) dominates this part of the photo. Several red hydrogen gas clouds can be seen here, including the semi-circular Barnard's Loop.
* Centre right: The brilliant star Canopus, in the constellation Carina (the Keel), is near the right edge of the frame. It is the second brightest star in the sky, outshone only by Sirius (the Dog Star), which appears just below and to the right of centre in this photo.
* Lower right: In the constellation Vela (the Sail) we see large red hydrogen gas clouds that are not often shown in long exposure astrophotos.
* Centre bottom: The zodiacal light is a pyramid rising from the horizon in the hour before morning twilight starts.
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Technical information:
Nikkor AF-S 14-24 mm f/2.8G ED lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer tracking mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head
Nine stacked frames; each frame:
14 mm focal length
ISO 4000; 1 minute exposure at f/4
(with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, levels, colour balance)
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Manufacturer: Carl F. W. Borgward G. m. b. H. Automobil- und Motoren-Werke, Bremen-Hastedt -Germany / Carl F. W. Borgward G.m.b.H., Bremen-Sebaldsbrück - Germany
Type: BO 611 Omnibus
Production time: 1959 - 1961
Production outlet: 14,748 (all B 611 Series)
Engine: 1493cc straight-4
Power: 60 bhp / 4.700 rpm
Torque: 108 bhp / 2.400 rpm
Drivetrain: rear wheels
Speed: 92 km/h
Curb weight: 1740 kg
Wheelbase: 102 inch
Chassis: steel ladder-frame + additional subframe with all-steel body
Steering: ZF-Gemmer worm & sector
Gearbox: four-speed manual / fully synchronized / steering wheel shifter
Clutch: hydraulic F&S single dry plate disc
Carburettor: Solex 32 PJCB
Fuel tank: 50 liter
Electric system: Bosch 6 Volts / Diesel 12 Volts
Ignition system: distributor and coil
Brakes front: hydraulic Duplex inside expanding drums
Brakes rear: hydraulic Simplex inside expanding drums
Suspension front: independent two unequal length laterally mounted wishbones, sliding struts with coil springs and sway bar + telescopic shock absorbers
Suspension rear: transverse reinforcement bars with sliding struts, longitudinally mounted semi-elliptic leaf springs + telescopic shock absorbers
Rear axle: rigid "swing" Banjo type
Differential: spiral bevel
Wheels: 4 1/2 K x15
Tires: 6,70 x 15
Special:
- This light commercial vehicle was launched in 1957 as Borgward B 1500 F (F="Frontlenker-Transporter" / "Cabover Transporter") and renamed in 1959 as B 611.
- The engine was installed in a large pod between the driver and his passenger.
- The Omnibus has a 17 passengers capacity and with a relatively narrow turning circle of 10.8 meters it was particularly suitable for city use.
- The B 611 Series was available as this BO 611 Omnibus, as B 611 Van, as B 611 Pick-Up Truck and as rolling chassis cab.
- It also could be bought as D/B(O) 611 with a 1758cc straight-4 Bosch PES 4 A 50 B 410 RS 80/1 Diesel engine - 42 bhp / 3.400 rpm - 102 Nm / 2.200 rpm - 75 km/h.
- According to the owner this bus is in totally original (unrestored) condition and there are only 4 Omnibus survivors left.
IC 4592 is a large blue reflection nebula lit by the light from the multiple star system ν Scorpii - the brightest star in the frame, just below center.
This photo is another framing failure - the nebula is commonly known as the Blue Horsehead but I have truncated the horse's muzzle (at bottom right). It needs a wider field of view, or a mosaic - I'll maybe try again next year.
Anyway, this image is an integration of 211 x240s subframes captured on a QHY168C OSC with WO Zenithstar 103 scope. An STC multispectra LP filter was used. Imaging was controlled via SGP and PHD2, all post-processing was with PixInsight.
Observed from Prachinburi, Thailand
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Photographed 4.5 km north of (13 km by road from) Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Ayers Rock), Northern Territory, Australia, between 23.30 and 23.49 CAST (Central Australia Standard Time)
* Observing site: Long. 131.07° E. | Lat. 25.22° S. | Elev. 501 m
* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: ~76°
* Total exposure time: 12 minutes
* 50 mm focal length lens
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Description:
Part of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, runs from the constellation Aquila (The Eagle) at the left side to Sagittarius (the Archer) at right.
Dozens of star clusters, glowing clouds of pink-red ionized hydrogen gas, and foreground dark nebulae are strewn across this area of the sky. The centre of the Milky Way lies out of view to the right side.
The 12th brightest star of in the sky, Altair, is near the left edge of the frame, below centre.
All of what is shown in this image can also be seen from the northern hemisphere, but I wanted to photograph it from south of the equator as well, from which it can be viewed almost straight overhead.
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/49278477912
Here is a photo of the gear that used for astrophotography on this trip:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/49017804808
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Technical information:
Sigma 50 mm f/1.4 DG HSM ART Lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on an iOptron CEM40 equatorial mount with a Kirk Enterprises ball head
Twelve stacked subframes - each frame:
ISO 2500; 1 minute exposure at f/4, 50 mm focal length, unguided (with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (brightness, contrast, levels, colour balance)
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Seen on Gt. Yarmouth seafront.
Frame: Steel trellis, cast aluminium rear subframe
Length: 86.6 in. (2,200 mm)
Height:
Width:
Wheelbase: 63.58 in. (1,615 mm)
Seat height: 29.72 in. (755 mm)
Dry weight: 485 lb. (220 kg)
Curb weight: 544.5 lb. (247 kg)
Front suspension: Adjustable 1.97 in. (50 mm) fork
Rear suspension: Single shock absorber
Front brake: Twin 12.6 in. (320 mm) discs, ABS
Rear brake: Single 10.43 in. (265 mm) disc, ABS
Front tyre: Pirelli Diablo Rosso II, 120/70 ZR17
Rear tyre: Pirelli Diablo Rosso II 240/45 ZR17
Fuel capacity: 3.96 gal. (18 litres)
Engine: 1,262 cc, (77 cu. in.) Ducati Testastretta DVT, L-twin, four stroke, fuel injected, liquid cooled
Engine output: 152 hp (110.9 kW) at 9,500 rpm
Gearbox: 6 speed constant mesh
Top speed: 169 mph (272 km/h)
Saw several examples of the next-gen RX as I was out and about on this day, but the Mk1 versions are fairly rare nowadays.
It'd done 116k miles at its last MoT so could have a fair bit of life yet, if the owners aren't faced with any expensive parts being required or subframe rust issue.
Appropriately this shot was taken from my LS400.
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Photographed outside Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park, Northern Territory, Australia (440 km by road southwest of Alice Springs), long. 131.04° E., lat. 25.22° S., between 23.20 and 23.42 CAST (Central Australian Standard Time)
* Altitude of centre of frame at time of exposures: 46°
* Temperature 11° C.
* Total exposure time: 10 minutes
* 50 mm focal length lens
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Description:
Both astronomers and casual sky observers enjoy drawing lines between nearby stars and forming star patterns in their minds. A very obvious star pattern for observers in the southern hemisphere is the Southern Cross, formed by three very bright stars and one fainter one in the constellation Crux (the Cross).
The Southern Cross appears near the left edge of the frame, just above centre. For a close-up view of this star pattern, click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/28578438088
Larger and not as obvious, at the right side below centre in this view, are the four fainter stars of the False Cross, which is often mistaken for the Southern Cross because it rises in the southeast a couple of hours before Crux does.
Just above centre in the middle of the frame is the red-pink hydrogen emission nebula surrounding the variable star Eta Carinae. For a close-up view of this nebula, made three nights earlier, click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/41615329630
And at left, side by side, are the two first magnitude stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, which are the 3rd and 11th brightest stars in the sky (other than the Sun).
This is the telescope and mount that I used for my astrophotography on this trip:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/28602350028
For a version of this photo WITH LABELS, click on your screen to the RIGHT of the photo, or click here:
www.flickr.com/photos/97587627@N06/43436255575
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Technical information:
Sigma 50mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art Lens on Nikon D810a camera body, mounted on Sky-Watcher HEQ5 equatorial mount with Kirk Enterprises ball head
Ten stacked subframes - each frame:
ISO 4000; 1 minute exposure at f/4.5, 50 mm focal length, unguided (with LENR - long exposure noise reduction)
Subframes stacked in RegiStar;
Processed in Photoshop CS6 (curves, levels, brightness, contrast, colour balance, bright star flare reduction)
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CaliforniaNebula_NGC1499, captured 2015-09_20, camera: SonyA7s (centralDS modded and cooled) 52 subframes a 300sec IDAS-V4, scope: RASA 11" F/2.2, mount: EQ8, Guiding_scope, processed with PixInsight (registration), CCDware (stacking and deconvolution), Photoshop CS6 (final cosmetic corrections), Tenerife, 1180 m altitude.