Barry Brence's Posts - AstroGab2024-03-28T22:35:26ZBarry Brencehttp://astrogab.ning.com/profile/BarryBrencehttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2800114211?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://astrogab.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=0ce84v9k3hbc5&xn_auth=noMy first astrophoto............tag:astrogab.ning.com,2011-05-17:6354305:BlogPost:451282011-05-17T04:30:00.000ZBarry Brencehttp://astrogab.ning.com/profile/BarryBrence
My first digital photo of the moon was taken in 2006, but I actually started many, many years earlier.<br></br>
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<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2687594075?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2687594075?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> <br></br>
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In 1957, comet <strong>Arrend-Roland</strong> was bright in the sky. A friend of mine had a decent camera......can't remember exactly what it was. But we set it on a tripod and started clicking away with B&W film. Both of our dad's had…
My first digital photo of the moon was taken in 2006, but I actually started many, many years earlier.<br/>
<br/>
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<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2687594075?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2687594075?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a><br/>
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In 1957, comet <strong>Arrend-Roland</strong> was bright in the sky. A friend of mine had a decent camera......can't remember exactly what it was. But we set it on a tripod and started clicking away with B&W film. Both of our dad's had darkrooms. We develped the film ourselves and made some prints.....and were amazed that they looked pretty darn good. Neither of us have a clue where those prints are today, but we still look back at that time with fondness.<br/>
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I repeated the process (this time with color film in an Olympus OM-1) when comet <strong>Hale-Bopp</strong> appeared in 1997. That one I kept....scanned it and it's posted in my Solar System album. Now, THAT was a comet.........no wimpy wisp that required a telescope or even binoculars. It was big as life and bright to the naked eye.<br/>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;">My first ever deep sky photo</span> was M13, taken <strong>May of 2007</strong>, with an original <strong>Meade DSI</strong> on a <strong>NexStar 4se</strong> (Alt-AZ) with 25 eleven second exposures. Pretty grim, but I was thrilled.<br/>
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<a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2808275964?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2808275964?profile=original" width="491"/></a><br/>
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After that I progressed slowly, struggling with the NexStar mount and short exposure times. Finally in <strong>May of 2009</strong> I acquired a Celestron CG5 mount, an Orion ST80mm refractor, and I replaced the DSI with a StarShoot II color ccd. The StarShoot was a modest improvement over the DSI, but the EQ CG5 made a huge difference. I could now take 60 second exposures. The results were better, but still relatively poor.<br/>
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<a href="http://www.myastronomyjournal.com/user_images/bbrence_images/2009-08-20/M101_8_18_09_ITS.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="http://www.myastronomyjournal.com/user_images/bbrence_images/2009-08-20/M101_8_18_09_ITS.jpg"/></a><br/>
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Now my problem was bloated stars and inept processing skills.<br/>
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Then in <strong>Novemeber 2009</strong>, I bought a used <strong>Canon 350D</strong>, and things began to improve.....although slowly at first. My first image 11/25/09 with the Canon mounted on the ST80.<br/>
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<a href="http://www.myastronomyjournal.com/user_images/bbrence_images/2009-11-25/M31_11_24_09_40_x_50_sec_Xsmall.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="http://www.myastronomyjournal.com/user_images/bbrence_images/2009-11-25/M31_11_24_09_40_x_50_sec_Xsmall.jpg"/></a><br/>
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At this point I got a tremendous amount of help from a friend (Neil Heacock)......with processing, polar aligning, focusing, etc etc, Not to mention going from 8 bit Photo Shop Elements, to 16 bit Photo Shop CS1. My final acquisition was the 6" Orion imaging Newtonian. I am very pleased with it.....and it fit in with my "imaging on a budget" plan.<br />
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Finally about a year ago, I gave in and mounted the ST80 on top of the 6" Newt, and began guiding....using the StarShoot as my autoguider and the ST80 as my guide scope....using <strong>PHD Guiding</strong>. Now I am normally shooting 3 minute exposures.....but the setup is a bit heavy for the CG5 to handle. I can see an Atlas or CGEM mount in my future......but neither of them are in the budget right now.<br />
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I am generally happy with my pictures......just want to be more consistent. I still have too many mistakes due to impatience. It is still difficult to get everything right on the same night.....alignment, focusing, sufficient data, etc.How did you get started in astrophotography?tag:astrogab.ning.com,2011-05-13:6354305:BlogPost:452242011-05-13T22:47:33.000ZBarry Brencehttp://astrogab.ning.com/profile/BarryBrence
And......if you knew then what you know now, would you do it all over again?<br />
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I think I probably started like most of you.....by hand-holding a point & shoot, cheapo digital camera up to the eyepiece of your telescope, at the moon. In my case it was a 6" Dob. I think I shot 30 or more frames that first time. Most of them were out of focus or not centered right, but a few just knocked my socks off. I was amazed it could be done!<br />
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That lead to some ill-fated attempts to image Saturn and…
And......if you knew then what you know now, would you do it all over again?<br />
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I think I probably started like most of you.....by hand-holding a point & shoot, cheapo digital camera up to the eyepiece of your telescope, at the moon. In my case it was a 6" Dob. I think I shot 30 or more frames that first time. Most of them were out of focus or not centered right, but a few just knocked my socks off. I was amazed it could be done!<br />
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That lead to some ill-fated attempts to image Saturn and Jupiter than same way. They were pretty terrible, but I was hooked!!<br />
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Next I bought a $100 webcam (a Philips ToUcam Pro II 840k) and learned about Registax. I also acquired a Celestron Nexstar 4se. The thing didn't track very well, but good enough for short video clips. The results were incredible by comparison to the one shot attempts. I was totally hooked now.<br />
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Then the real fun began. I bought a $300 original Meade DSI and plugged it into the Nexstar. I could take about 30-35 exposures of 15 seconds each before the subject drifted out of the frame. Round, pinpoint stars? Are you kidding? I was totally thrilled with these early pictures........even with stars that looked like fat, bloated eggs. But hey......there was M27 and M57 and something that sort of looked like M51.<br />
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I over-processed everything, using Paint Shop Pro Photo. Noise??? Oh yeh.....but hey, what's a little noise when you just took a picture of M51 from your own driveway. Auto guiding? Polar Alignment? Huhhhhh??? What's that? Gradient? Vignetting? Oh, heck yes......these pictures had it all, and then some.<br />
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It's been over 4 years now, and I still have more to learn than many of you have forgotten, and I have spent WAY more money that I anticipated.....even for fairly bottom of the line equipment. But it's been fun.<br />
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I still get the question, "Why do this to get mediocre pictures when you can just download beautiful Hubble images from the net?" The answer is, the enormous satisfaction you get from doing something that is difficult. "We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." John F Kennedy