Samuel Oastler photo taken with Rick Nolthenius of M13 NGC6205 in Constellation Hercules

M33

Joel Castellanos

-Little dumbbell Nebula Messier-76 in constellation perseus. -2 x 5 min exposures taken on Nov 25, 2014 at the Cabrillo observatory -Chip temperature -30. Two exposures of five minutes each were taken of the Little Dumbbell Nebula using a St2000xcm camera and a 12” telescope. Using CCDops for initial processing I corrected Darkness by using Dark subtract followed by flat field to correct darker corners and ended the process with Single shot Color using RGB + gamma and getting some color in the photo in preparation for stacking the two images on Registax. Once I corrected the images I opened Registax and “stacked” the 2 images by stretching intensity levels, then I processed in color. After I aligned the pictures by selecting default method, Alignbox size 128 and choose the lowest quality to insure all the images would be used. First I choose 1 image using a very bright star near M-76 then converting it to a TIFF file for use in Photoshop. Once in Photoshop I used curves to tweak my black color and get a better quality picture. I adjusted the saturation to increase the colors, followed by Unsharp mask. I then adjusted the resolution to 300 pixels per inch and saved as a .jpg format. That about sums up my process on this Astro photograph.

melanie's

After the images were taken, they were put into a computer program on campus called "CCDOPs," where I had to do dark subtracting, flat fielding, and color conversion on all three of my photographs. Once I got the original RAW image files from Rick, based on the night I took my pictures, I had to set the CCD program to the right field degree. My DK5 was -20, so after I entered this I could properly dark subtract my photo. Once I found my "dark frame," I had to chose the 'standard' option to correctly dark subtract all of my photos properly (so they all came out the same for when I stacked them). Since my image was taken with a 12 inch scope under the dome, I had to flat field it because the corners were too light and needed to be corrected to match the rest of the photo.Then I converted my images to color by using the single shot color box. since M15 is a globular cluster, rick recommended I use the DDP method. I had to adjust the back (which ended up being zero), and range (which was 225) for the best color results when processed (unprocessed was 4586 and 8284). I did this process three times, and then sent them to myself to be processed in a photo stacking program called Registax. By stacking all three of my finished CCD photo's, my final single image would be clearer than just one. After uploading all three images, I selected the default alignment program and picked an 'alignment' star to stack up all my photo's. From there I saved the file and went on to do my final edits in Adobe Photoshop CS4.  When I opened the image in Photoshop, I first decided to mess around with the simple brightness and contrast tabs to see if I could draw less attention from the really bright center of the star cluster. After finding a setting that fit, I used the eye dropper tool to match my background night sky so I could edit out small unwanted red, blue, and green dots. After this process, I edited the saturation and temperature of the image, because most of my outer starts were red, but around the cluster itself was a slightly blue ring I wanted to bring out some more. I also messed with the 'curves' settings to get my night sky to be dark, but not fully pitch black. For my final step, I 'sharpened' the image as best I could so everything looked a little less fuzzy and more detailed. I'm very impressed with the way my globular cluster image came out, and I'm proud of it after all the steps it took.  

(Shane) First I had to choose my deep sky object and found that NGC 891 would be a good choice due to its spiral and bright yellow center. The night of the shoot was a moon and the class was conducting occultation’s and the light was a factor. We took 3 took three photos however it took 5 attempts due to the camera unsteady movement. The photos where 5 minutes exposures and the tempature was -30 on 10/28/14. Once I had the image I had to use drak frame correct on mag box by seleting 1:2 ratio. In addition I had to correct for  Flat field.  After this step I followed the directions in order  which deeed I had to convert to color. This process I had to use single shot color box and use SRB+ Gamma.  Once I did this I had to save images as a TIFF. Which led me to Use Registax inorder to triple stack my imagine to produce a better quity of picture.  After this process I was able to finally use Photoshop.  This however was my most challenging process because im a novice when using this program in addition to being extremely color blind. To find correct contrast i had to find the balance between a dark black sky which made my main imagine pop but, in doing so also lost outer lining of image. When looking for green stars also found challenging because due to aforementioned colordeficientness. However, I continued and powered through curves and levels where I again tried to find the balance between the loosening image and having appropriate back round.  I felt that finding hue and saturation levels where difficult and felt I made the appropriate judgment call on my image as not to lose the scientific integrity of the image. After this process I downloaded Noel Carbonis Photo shop I tired to add the actions of space reduction, local contrast enhance, and make stars smaller, however after each use I only noticed only subtle differences  After this prcess I began to resize my images to send to the professor. All in all this process was a difficult one that took hours of time I am proud of the one about to turn in and will be hanging an 8 by 10 frame 

M16 (Eagle Nebula)

Orion Nebula (M42), Trent Cates. CCDOPS;Flat field, dark subtract, color process of sRGB-Gamma. Registax; version 5, stack of three photos Adobe Photoshop; version 6, make three layers, highten contrast, reduction of blue, localised brightness reductions, complete reversion to base colors and modified opacity for two layers, darken both layes background, sharpen both,reduce contrast on one, stack of all three,reduce contrast,highten brightness, modified intensity of red, crop and size for print and gallery.

fullsize

Hercules star cluster, M13. The time was 20:33 and a 300 second exposure. Cabrillo Observatory Dome CCDOPS. Full moon, no wind, and zero clouds. In photo shop Adjusted curves to make darker image. Lowered brightness. Raised the contrast. Also adjusted the saturation to +23. Used healing brush and removed odd colored pixels. Adjusted grain by using grain reducer twice. In registax, stacked 2 frames. Dark subtract -27c. Framed 5 by 5 because image fit better in a square format.