This was a pretty energetic class. Lots of non-stop activity, mostly to the good! Alas, it was spring and we had only a few clear nights this semester, and most were after daylight savings time kicked in and took away a lot of our dark time. We definitely made the best of it, just the same. Some pics were done from raw material gathered in previous semesters.

 

Me, Rachel, Mr. Python, and the Beck-meister

Rachel brought her outstandingly wonderful pet python to celebrate the final meeting for the crew. Here's he's inspecting her shot of the the supernova in the galaxy M82.... fine job!

NGC 891, Spiral Galaxy. Hunter Hersey, 12" Meade LX200, ST2000XCM, 4x5 min. Feb. 27, 2013 04:42:12-05:24:33 UT, Cabrillo Observatory Dome. CCDOps version 5, Dark subtract -30C, Flat field, Color process sRGB+gamma. Registax version 5, Stack 4 frames. Photoshop CS 2, curves to brighten the galaxy, levels to darken the background, increased saturation, increased brightness, increased contrast, stamp tool to fix pixels, sharpen, make stars smaller. Cropped and sized for print and the gallery.

 

 

Jason Gardinier, Sarah’s Galaxy, NGC 3628, ST-2k with 12" LX200 scope, 3x5min, no clouds or moon CCDOPS: Dark Frame, Flat Field, sRGB + Gamma Registax: stacked 3 images Photoshop CS5: duplicated layer, Soft Light, opacity 42%, levels, curves, brightness adjustment layers (remove noise), duplicated layer, Overlay, opacity 42% (restored lost pixels), cropped.

My name is Harrison and my partner Eli and I photographed the Double Cluster, NGC869. For our photo we only took one picture because Rick said that was all we needed. The night we took our picture the moon was not bright and the lights of Santa Cruz did not affect our ability to photograph it. We first started processing our picture by using a program called CCDOPS. Here we imputed the temperature and our color method of our raw photo. The temperature of our picture was -22.65 degrees C and we took our picture on 03/18/2014. Also in the CCDOPS program we did dark and flat field corrections on our photo and then we converted it to color. These steps were very important in improving the overall quality of our photo before we started editing it in Photoshop. Photoshop was the next step in editing our photo, we did not have to stack our photo because we only had one and it was already bright enough. So in Photoshop I first started by rotating my photo and then I messed with the brightness to brighten up the photo a little bit. Next I took away the fuzziness of my photo by messing around with the "curves" editing tool. This cleared up the fuzziness and made the black in my photo a little more gray. After that I proceeded to taking out any red, green and blue dots that were created by the camera when taking our photo because they were not natural. Next I properly sized my photo for the internet gallery. After that my photo was done and ready to be submitted.

 

 

(Eli Paynter) The Double Cluster - NGC 869 & NGC 884 - is located in the constellation of Perseus. The image was photographed using the 12" LX200 Dome Scope equipped with a SBIG ST2000XCM color CCD camera shooting a five minute exposure.  The image was then dark frame corrected and colorized using DDP.  Since there was only one photograph, there was no use for Registax 4 to stack multiple images.  The next step was to enhance the image in Photoshop CS2, which was achieved by adjusting the levels & curves and saturation to make the image more clear, visible and color balanced.  Minor discolorations and imperfections were removed using the clone stamp tool.  Then the image was sharpened to finalize it and then it was printed.

 

Jack Cuniff: Owl Nebula – ten-minute exposures were taken under a clear sky, and a bright moon with the est 2000 camera with a 12 inch telescope. Each image was dark frame corrected, colorized and flat field corrected using CCDOPS. In Registax 5 all the images were stacked together. In Photoshop C2 the stacked photo was edited using astronomy tools levels and curves to brighten the stars and edit the background darkness. Once that was completed, saturation was used to bring out the red and blue properties of the nebula. Using the healing brush removed the pixelated blotches surrounding the nebula

NGC 7078 (M15), constellation: Pegasus. Kary DaRosa, 12" photo given. 5x5 min.Oct. 8,2013. 9:00, Cabrillo Observatory Dome CCDOPS:Version 5.54 build 15 Dark Subtract -24C, flat fied, Color process SRGB+gamma, Registax: Version 6.1.0.8, stack 2 frames photoshop: version 7.0, levels and curves (darken background), unsharp mask, filter/sharpen/despeckle, crop(no rotation canvas),median actions: make stars smaller,Saturation +22, Hue -8, crop and size print and gallery

 

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Ursa Major, Messier 82, Cigar Galaxy Joshua Mack, 12" Meade LX200, ST2000XCM, 3x5 min March, 12, 2014 9:46, Cabrillo Observatory Dome, CCDOPS: Version 5.54 build 15 Dark subtract -30c, Flat field, COlor process sRGB+gamma, Registax; Version 6.1.0.8, Stack 3 frames Photoshop Version 7.0, Levels (Darken back ground), healing brush, Multilayered Image, Lens flair (for brighter stars), Layer Mask color for emphasis (on Galaxy), Glossermer layer, White layer to add greyscale, Cropped to Size.

Black Eye Galaxy (M64) Leo Constellation, Liana McWilliams, 12”Meade, 12”f/6.3, LX200, ST2000XCM, 5X5 min., April 15, 2014 21:54:19-22:10:10, Cabrillo Observatory Dome, CCDOPS: Version 5.54, Dark subtract -25 C, Flat field, Color process RGB with gamma—left everything at 0 pt., Registax: Version 6.1.0.8, Full size, color, multi, lowest quality (0), Align box (32), align, limit, optimize, Stack 3 images, do all, save, Used 3 stars (but only kept one in final image), Photoshop: Version 7.0, Curves and levels (adjust background and galaxy darkness and contrast), Healing brush (remove bad pixels and stars), Space noise reduction X3, Saturation +10, Crop and size for print and gallery

 

 

Jonathon Clugston: North American Nebula (NGC 7000), Emission nebula (Cygnus), Jonny Clugston, 12" Meade LX200, ST2000XCM, Oct. 8, 2013, 20:14:13 LT, Cabrillo Observatory Dome. CCDOPS: Version 5.54, Dark Subtract Chip temp. -24.19C, Flat field, color process, shot color, sRBG + gamma. Registax: Version 6.1.0.8, Stack 3 frames. Photoshop: CS2, Verson 7.0, Curves/levels (darken background, create contrast), Saturation/ brightness +20/+8, Unsharpen mask x 2, Depseckle, Crop and resized for print and gallery

 

 

Brittney Smith, Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), Spiral Galaxy. 12" Meade LX200, ST2000XCM, 2x5 min exposures. April 30, 2014. Some clouds, fog, no moon. CCDOPS: dark subtract dk-20. single shot color-sRGB + gamma, flatfield Oct 30-3. Registax: stack 2 frames. Photoshop: Curve and Levels (proper gray sky), hue and saturation (brighten object, correct color), Clone stamp (remove pixels), Unsharp mask (sharpen image), Space Noise Reduction x2, Sharpen, Despeckle, cropped and adjusted size for print.

johnathon schot martins. Sunflower Galaxy (m63), spiral galaxy.12" meade LX200, Cabrillo Observatory dome CCDOPS:
version 5.54 build 15 dark subtract -30c, flat field, color process SRGB+GAMMA, registrax: version 6.1,
 stack 3 frames photoshop 12, LEvels (darken background), space noise reduction, contrast enhancement, saturation, crop and size for print and gallery

NGC 3628 is an unbarred spiral galaxy. Garrett Miller, Astro 8, Spring 2014. Three five-minute exposures were taken with the ST-2K through the 12" LX200 scope. Using CCDOPS each image was “Dark Frame”, and “Flat Field” corrected.  They were also color processed using the “sRGB + Gamma” setting. Using Registax the three images were aligned and merged into one. The single image was then brought into Photoshop CS5. I used “levels”, “curves” and “brightness” layers to remove most of the noise in the photo. Then I copied the photo and stacked the copy on the top of the original. The “Multiply” blending mode was applied, with a change to the opacity level to 42%, this restored clarity to the Galaxy while removing noise. The last step was to center the galaxy to the middle of the photo. I chose to have the Galaxy at an angle to keep it’s size, while keeping the whole Galaxy in frame.

Caitlyn Chatman. Sunflower Galaxy (m63), spiral galaxy.12" meade LX200, Cabrillo Observatory dome CCDOPS:
version 5.54 build 15 dark subtract -30c, flat field, color process SRGB+GAMMA, registrax: version 6.1,
 stack 3 frames photoshop 12, LEvels (darken background), space noise reduction, contrast enhancement, saturation,crop and size for print and gallery

 

 

Ryan Sedgwick. Sunflower Galaxy (m63), spiral galaxy.12" meade LX200, Cabrillo Observatory dome CCDOPS: version 5.54 build 15 dark subtract -30c, flat field, color process SRGB+GAMMA, registrax: version 6.1, stack 3 frames photoshop 12, LEvels (darken background), space noise reduction, contrast enhancement, saturation, crop and size for print and gallery.

 

Annie Pike
M64 Black Eye Galaxy in Leo
M64 is two counter-rotating disks of equal mass. The inner disk contains the dust lanes. The stars are not counter rotating. Photographed with Liana on April 15, 2014. Clear seeing but with a full moon in the sky and high humidity due to the fog and cloudy conditions of the morning. It also rained on the prior Saturday. Image mage with the 12 dome Meade/f6.3 using the ST2000 CCDOPs camera. 3 5min exposures. In CCDOPs software, used a -25 dark subtract and a flat field from Oct302103 (fOct30-3), single shot color processing, -sRGB+Gamma, Stacked using Registax5, multi star stacking, 3 stars. Processed the .tif file in Bridge, adjusting the exposure, curves, shadows, temperature and tint. Used Noise reduction and shifted the Luminance and color settings.
Processed the second image taken with CCDOPs and changed the settings to 1810/3402 for a HD image. Used the same dark subtract and flat field and color processing, and Bridge settings. Used this image as a layer above the first image. Stacked manually. Added layer adjustment to fine tune the curves and color balance. Also added a color adjustment layer.  

 

 

John Camacho

 

 

Emily pacman nebula, stars, 12" ST2000xcm 7.4x7.4 sept. 24, 2013, 300,000 seconds UT, cabrillo observatory Dome CCDOPS: version 6, dark subtract -30C, flat field, color process sRGB+gamma, registax: version 6, stack 3 frames photoshop version 7 levels (darken back ground) cleaned up pixels, space noise reduction x 2, local contrast enhancment, filter and unsharp masked.cropping and size print gallery

 

 

 

Tanisha Otis-Taul. Messier 82 (M82). 12" Dome Telescope, ST2000XCM.March 25, 2014 @ 9:20pm. 2 exposures 00:19-00:45 UT, Cabrillo Observatory Dome. Clear sky with no moon out, slightly cloudy towards the end of the photo, aborted photo early.CCDOPS: -25C, dark subtracted with DK 5-25, flat field with FOCT 30-4. Color with Srgb+gama. Registax: stacked images 2 & 3 (image 1 had too much frost, so I threw it out) Photoshop: Cropped center of galaxy, darkened sky using curves, eliminated green tint using curves, healing brush (remove bad pixels), space noise reduction, saturation, crop and size for print and galaxy.

 

 

Stefan M. Nelson Astronomy 8A Spring 2014 On-Edge Spiral Galaxy NGC 891 Four 5 minute exposures were taken on 2/26/13. All images were dark frame corrected and colorized in CCDOPS. The corrected images were stacked via RegiStax 5.1. The stacked image was then processed in Photoshop CS2. Levels & curves were adjusted, then color saturation was increased. Noise was reduced and a despeckle filter was applied. The image was sharpened and then printed.

(Andy Acosta) The Owl Nebula- three five minute exposures were taken with the EST 2000, Estm, through the 12” telescope. In the CCDOPS I used the SRGB Gamma color method, 1:2; dK5-23.st2k dark frame, -23 temperature, and flat fields were used. Now that the picture has color and corrections I then moved onto Registax. In Registax I selected my files which were 3 pictures and then stack the pictures together. I did receive help from the student assistance in this section. After the pictures were stacked to make one picture I proceed onto Photoshop. In Photoshop I’ve cropped the image 3 times. The green, blue, and red spots I fixed with copy and paste. With curves I use six points on the line; i had input at 81 and the output at 190. I used color balance, saturation adjustment, brighten red, filter/noise/ median at 2, make star smaller, space noise reduction, local contrast enhancement, despeckle, size were all used in Photoshop to make the picture come together. After everything the picture is then printed and put into a frame.

 

(Michaela Camacho). NGC 188 No thumbnail sent. No separate captions sent.

Taylor Scaletti, Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), Spiral Galaxy. 12" Meade LX200, ST2000XCM, 2x5 min exposures. April 30, 2014. Some clouds, creeping fog, no moon. CCDOPS: dark subtract dk-20. single shot color-sRGB + gamma, flatfield Oct 30-3. Registax: stack 2 frames. Photoshop: Curve and Levels (proper gray sky), hue and saturation (brighten object, correct color), Clone stamp (remove pixels), Unsharp mask (sharpen image), Space Noise Reduction x2, Sharpen, Despeckle, cropped and adjusted size for print.

 

Will Lindner M82 (Messier 82) 12" Meade LX200 ST2000XCM 3 Stacked 5min Exposures, from Utility, Dark Subtract set dk 5-25 Set Flat Field 30-3 I also set the backround and range to 969 and 3480 respectively. Registax, Set quality at 0, aligined with focus star, chose limit, chose stack. Photoshop sharpened with unsharp mask, used curves, brought out the detail in the object without creating any, and made the sky reflect its true color, also increased saturation by 10, did not touch hue. I also cropped out mostly empty parts of the Photo. I do not know the sky conditions, as this was Joshua's photo, not mine, my photos were clouded out and frosted. Mine however was taken on a cloudy foggy night with no moon and frosted lenses. (these are not the ones I submitted for credit, surprisingly.) There were also major tracking issues on the night of the frosted lenses. Both Photos followed these procedures, however with different backround and range numbers for the frosted photos.

 

 

Rachel Fritz's M82 and supernova picture