This semester's class was plagued by many cloudy nights and rain till late November. Only got a few astro imaging pictures done properly. Otherwise, I had to give them my own raw images for the students to work with, process, and polish up. Many more in-class labs, was the trade-off. But, it was a group with good cheer and we got along well.

Some Pix from our Adventures...

Cheyenne won our competition for the best light curve for eclipsing binary star Beta Lyrae, estimated on-line from a series of photos I took.

 

Erik won the competition for Delta Cephei, which is a dimmer star with smaller variation in brightness, but a good project Cepheid star

    
         

 

Student Gallery

Audrey's M42 image

(no processing steps provided. Framed photo not given, but image on her iPhone held up at group photo)

Erik's image of the Crab Nebula Crab Nebula M1 November 25, 2025 Erik Ottem 3x5 minute  exposures on Meade 12" f/6.3 SCT CCDOPS image at -28C Dark Frame and Flat Frame
correction Deep Sky Stacker Edited in Gimp 3.0 Several hours of attempted enhancement resulted in suboptimal results

Steven Gallegos, The Firework Galaxy (NGC6946), taken on 10/28/25 at 21:53
with a SBIG ST-2K Color Dual CCD Camera.The temperature was -22.20. The Exposure is 300.000 (5 Mins). Took three
shots and stacked them together.
The Firework galaxy is located in constellation Cygnus. The skies wereclear, and the galaxy was visible to catch. Didn't need much of photoshopping since its very clear to see using the camera.

(Cheyenne). Image Subject: Dumbbell Nebula
Catalog #: M27 in constellation: Vulpecula Date Images Taken: 10/28/2025 Local Time: 21:24:42
Photos taken by: Dr. Rick Nolthenius, Cheyenne Janisch
Steps done in CCDOPS:Temperature: -22 Degrees Celsius, Exposure of 5 minutes, Scope: 12" f/6.3.Contrast 1:2, Dark Frame Subtraction of median of three dark frames at -22 Celsius, (auto selected).Flat field corrected, color method: sRBG+gamma. Steps done in DeepSkyStacker: Median (not average) stacking of three images, all independently dark frame subtracted and flat-fielded.
Photoshop Processing: Image>Adjustments>Curves, made the light curve concave up and steep toward the right––not black, just dark grey. Rick used Carboni Astronomy Tools Photoshop actions: Space noise reduction, make stars smaller, and local
contrast enhancement.

Dr Rick took this image several years ago of Comet Lovejoy, given this semester at the last minute to Alex whose Plieades picture was not very usable.

Brandon Sanchez
Swan Nebula, M17, Sagittarius
September 9th, 2025 21:30
I took three 5 minute exposure photos. In CCDOPS I dark subtracted and flat fielded using a -20 degree for the flat field, for each image. The Single Shot Color Processing was done using the sRGB with Gamma Method,
for all three images. To stack the images, I used DeepSkyStacker. I opened the TIF files in DeepSkyStacker, an used the Check all feature. Then I registered the checked pictures. In photoshop, I adjusted the Curves and Levels of the photo a few times. I modified the Hue value to enrich the color of the photo, and adjusted the saturation only slightly. I used a
slight blur to get rid of dead pixels, then I used a sharpen filter to
refocus the image. This dead pixels were brought back, but duller and less noticeable.

Nancy Singh's Image Subject: Comet Lemmon
Catalog # C/2025 A6
Observation Date: 10/29/2025
Observation Time: 03:02:38
Local Time of Image: 10/28/2025 at 20:02:38
Observer’s Name: Nancy Singh
Acquisition Software: WinOPS Ver 5.57 Build 3-NT
The image subject is Comet Lemmon, and the file name is nancy-CometLemmon-4. The
observation date was October 29, 2025, at 03:02:38, with the local time listed as October
28, 2025, at 20:02:38. The observer’s name is Nancy and Professor Rick. The image was
captured using WinOPS Version 5.57 Build 3-NT. The camera used was an SBIG ST-2K
Color Dual CCD Camera in standard image mode. The exposure time was 300 seconds,
recorded as 1 of 300 possible exposures, with a pedestal value of zero. The image size
was 1600 pixels wide by 1200 pixels high, and the resolution mode was set to high. The
CCD pixel size was 7.4 by 7.4 microns, corresponding to 0.6 arcseconds per pixel. The
exposure state listed ABG as clocked, DCS as yes, and DCR as no. The CCD temperature
during the capture was –21.75 degrees Celsius. The response factor was recorded as
3000.00 and 0.60 electrons per ADU. The telescope parameters included a focal length of
100 inches and an aperture of 75 square inches, with no optical filter used for the
exposure. The tracking value was noted as 3.000.