We had our challenges this spring. An unusually wet one, and only ~5 nights under the stars, some compromised by the early start of "Darkness Wasting Time". BUT, we still got enough points (barely) of data on our variable stars projects to make combined class light curves, and compare them to the best available data and have our traditional friendly competition for who got (guessed?) the best magnitudes for these stars. Always fun to do this, while we munch chips, cookies (thanks Vika, Cade, and the gang!).

I took this shot outsidemy office, next to our classroom, near sunset. My office walkway has just about the best view on campus.

These were our extra credit star party participants!

Astro 8r's, putting up their data on the white board light curve graphs, on our final exam day...

It's fun to hand out applause to the student whose data best agrees with the expected light curve. Here, Saam took the honors for the Cepheid variable star T Monocerotis.

And Bodi did best on the difficult Cepheid star Zeta Geminorium.

Bodi, pleased with his work.

Mars was at a close opposition just before the semester started, and was convenient in the evening sky all semester. The task was to measure the magnitude and chart its position among the stars.

Class photo, this one taken by me, and included my abel and cheerful student assistant Cade Knorr.

Under the night sky, logging data on their variable stars, and other observing projects

Vika shows off her efforts.

 

Here's our Spring '23 Student Gallery of Astrophotography images

Our 12" Dome scope, unfortunately, suffers still from intermittant serial port conflicts which I've not solved. Cabrillo Information Technology refuses to work with any of my computers, so I'm on my own. I will try over the summer to track down the error source, but I've put many many hours in already, to no avail. So, for this semester we borrowed raw images from previous semesters and students processed them in the classroom as usual.


Astro 8 - Gallery Narrative - Katie Brooks - Spring 2023
NGC 4565 - The Needle Galaxy (as photographed in Spring 2019) Found in the
constellation Coma Berenices
These three images have an image date of 4/24/2019 with a local time of
4/23/2019 between 9:38 to 9:56 p.m. 3 photographs at 5 mins each.
Beginning in CCDOPS, I first contrasted each image to Mag 1:2 for a more
workable picture. Then for each image, subtracted a dark frame at a chip
temperature of -23 °C then auto-processed to see the image. Next was to
open the utility function to divide the flat field provided from Spring
2019. The final step in CCDOPS was to single-shot color, then color
process to the final image for each saved in a .tif file.
In Registax, after uploading the three .tif file images, I aligned the
three images from a single star in each, with the stacking parameters set
at box size 128. After the third try on stacking from a single star, the
stacked image looked good to me, so it was saved and moved on to the final
step.
Photoshop processing helped to refine the background space noise using the
reduction function, despeckle, and clone stamp. I also set the saturation
levels to +6 and vibrance +40 and defined the curves to bring out the
Needle Galaxy to its full brilliance.

sized, labelled, steps described... all perfectly

Sombrero Galaxy (M104), ST-2k, 5X5 min Apr. 30, 2019 22:09:12:00 UT,
Cabrillo Observatory Dome CCDOPS Version 5.54 build 15 Dark subtract -
23.10, Flat Field, Color Process sRGB+gamma, Registax:version 6.1,Stack 3
frames photoshop: Version 7.0, Hue/Saturation (increased saturation),
Space Noise Reduction, Levels, Despeckle, Crop
M104 Sombrero Galaxy-4/30/2019 at 10:09pm. Eric Fuentes-Diaz, 3x5min,
SBTGST2000XCM, 12"Meade LX2000@Cabrillo Observatory

 

(RN: sized right. good labelling. Sky was left too bright, and galaxy could have used noise reduction inside "noise" on tap bar. and what steps in Registax?)

Adriel Garcia
May 23, 2023
Astro 8A
Subject: Messier 63 or M63, and also known as the Sunflower Galaxy, is a
spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici with an
estimate of 400 billion stars. It’s known as the Sunflower Galaxy due to
its floral appearance; wispy spiral arms and bright center. This
particular image was taken local time: 3/8/2022 - 21:38.07pm.
Steps of image processing
CCDOPS Software:
* Dark Frame Correction - Dark subtracting displays the image in black
and white, removing any dark corners.
* Flat Field Correction - Flat Fielding the image will also eliminate any
remaining dark corners and even the luminosity of the image.
* Converting to Color - Last step for CCDOPS is to convert the image to
color. After doing so, it’s time to save the image as a (tif. file), as
it will be easier for working with other softwares. (All steps should
be repeated for 3 images.)
Registax Software:
* Stacking the 3 images - Stacking the 3 images allows the images to
align one on top of the other to result in a single image. Giving a
better visual. The settings that were used were Alignment Method:
Default, Alignbox size: 128, Lowest quality: 0. Once done, then it’s
saved as a Stack.
Photoshop Software:
* Lastly, once all the previous steps are completed, the image is now
prepared for any refinement or minor tweaks as desired. For my image I
simply just cropped the image so it’s more centered, adjusted a little
of the exposure, brightness/contrast, and vibrance. Image isn’t crystal
clear but I did my best with what I had.

 

(RN: A little over-wordy, we don't want a wikipedia entry. just your steps; very complete label

Brodi Gomez 
Astro8A
Spring 2023
NGC2264 – Cone Nebula: I had five Previously taken Five-minute exposures that were taken with the SBTGST 2000 XCM through the 12” Meade LX200. Each of the images was Dark frame subtracted and divided by the flat field. Then Colorized using the color filter sRGB w/ Gamma on CCDOps. Then all five colored images were stacked in RegiStax using a bright isolated star to align. Then the stacked images were edited in GIMP. Adjusting the black and white curve in order to darken the darker areas and brighten the lighter areas. The image was then sharpened, and color saturation was increased to make the nebula more defined and present. Then used a little bit of noise reduction to get rid of some of the grains. Then compressed it down to 16in then to 3in. Then I uploaded the images to Walgreens.com for printing. 

 

(RN: submitted way too big - 1.3Meg, neither were sized right nor saved for web. Blue area is false - ask for help on how to fix these things before too late.)

Jade Harrell
Astro 8
Spring 2023
M31- The Andromeda Galaxy: three five-minute exposures taken with the SBTGST 2000 XCM
through the 12” Meade LX200. Each image was corrected with a dark frame and flat field using
CCDOps. The three corrected colorized images were stacked using Registax 5. The stacked
image was then edited in Photoshop. Balanced the colors using curves before creating
saturation adjustments. Sharpened the image, reduced the noise, and cropped out the excess
black. Lastly, I reduced the image to 16x and then 3x and uploaded it on CVS Print to print it

 

(RN: submitted as large .TIFF files, and layers. Sky is way too black; you lost all the delicate spiral arms. Curves could have helped. Color balance is a different control knob)


Kevin Hernandez
Astro 8A
Spring 2023


Orion Nebula (M42) found in the Orion constellation- Three 5 minute exposures were taken with the SBIG ST2000 XCM through the 12 inch dome telescope at the Cabrillo Observatory with a chip temperature of -25 degrees celsius. Using CCDOPS, each image was individually subtracted by the dark frame, and then divided by the flat field. All three images were then colorized using a filter mask, stacked together using Registax 5, to give one clear image showcasing the best parts of the three photos. The stacked image was then transported to photoshop for some minor enhancements. Luminescence was adjusted using levels and curves, minor saturation adjustments. Make stars smaller (1X), and space noise reduction (1X) tools were used to sharpen the color and enhance the stars that are visible. The image was then printed on 8x10 glossy paper at CVS. Delete comment: Kevin Hernandez Astro 8A Spring 2023 Orion Nebula (M42) found in the Orion constellation- Three 5 minute exposures were taken with the SBIG ST2000 XCM through the 12 inch dome telescope at the Cabrillo Observatory with a chip temperature of -25 degrees celsius. Using CCDOPS, each image was individually subtracted by the dark frame, and then divided by the flat field. All three images were then colorized using a filter mask, stacked together using Registax 5, to give one clear image showcasing the best parts of the three photos. The stacked image was then transported to photoshop for some minor enhancements. Luminescence was adjusted using levels and curves, minor saturation adjustments. Make stars smaller (1X), and space noise reduction (1X) tools were used to sharpen the color and enhance the stars that are visible. The image was then printed on 8x10 glossy paper at CVS.

 

RN: Good!

Vika: In our astrophotography lab, I was given 3 unedited images of a Whirlpool Galaxy (catalog number M51) in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Original images were taken on 3/17/2015 at 21:55:17, 22:02:17, and 22:10 by Rick and Kiah.

Then in the CCDOPS app, I subtracted the dark frame from the original image. I chose dk6-23.ST2K dark frame, because the chip temperature of the original photos was -23 degrees Centigrade. After that, I divided the image by the flat field. I chose the flat field fSep22-15-3.ST2K out of all other flat fields, because it was taken on the date closest to the date the original pictures were taken. Then I used the single shot color method and saved it as a tif file under my name. I then repeated the process with the other two images. Once all three original images were processed and saved as tif files I moved into the Registax app.

In Registax, I opened all three tif images and following instructions from Rick's website, I set the stacking parameters. Then I aligned all images and saved a -stack.tif file.

The next step was working on the -stack.tif file in Photoshop. Here are the steps I took to get the final image:

1. opened the stacked image

2. darkened the background in the image → adjustment → curves

3. used the clone stamp tool to get rid of extra dots

4. adjusted vibrance and saturation

5. sharpened the picture a bit

6. made stars smaller

After that I saved the final result as -stack-ps.tif and also saved the image in smaller size for gallery in .jpg format. I then emailed all the images to myself and am about to submit gallery images here on Canves and then print and frame tif image which I will bring to class on the day of the final.

 

(RN: Good complete descriptions. The label is formatted though. I wanted just compact complete sentences for this webpage. I think you left the sky too black, though. And, could have pumped the color of the spiral arms to bring out their bluish color. But still, good job.

name:
andrew mcpherson
subject:
the crab nebula
catalog designation:
M1
costellation:
Taurus
date taken:
04/05/22
time:
three, 5 minute exposures at
20:49:05
21:05:38
21:11:44
who took it:
Lucia
Rick
steps:
Three five minute long exposures all dark frame and flat field corrected
then color processed in CCDOPS. Then lined up and overlayed in RegiStax.
Finally I opened the resulting image in photoshop to finish adjusting it.
The brightness output was adjusted using levels and curves, I then used
Astronomy Tools to reduce the space noise, make stars smaller, enhance
local contrast, and enhance DSO/reduce stars. I then adjusted the
saturation and used an unsharp mask to improve clairity. The image was
finally cropped and had the light pollution reduction tool used on it
before being exported

 

(RN: The label should not have been formatted. Just plain sentences is what was asked for. Otherwise, the description is good, sized right on submission. The sky is too black, though. Dark gray is what to aim for, to be sure you get all the faint outer parts of your object.)

(Saam) Messier 66 (M66), intermediate spiral galaxy, by Ethan, telescope unkown,
300.000 sec Exposure, ST-2K, 2x3 min March 12, 2019 21:46:07 UT, Cabrilllo
Observatory Dome, CCDOPPS WinOPS v5.57 build 3-NT, Dark subtract -28C,
Flat field, color process sRGB+gamma. Registax v5.1, Stack 2 frames due to
corrupted second frame. Photoshop v5 free trial, Levels darkened
background (81, 0.91, 255), Clone stamp and Healing brush removed bad
pixels, Saturation +15 Hue -5, Curves increased greyness, Crop and image
size for print and gallery (Saam)

 

RN: Needed your name right at top of label. Sky way too black, lost outer parts of galaxy. The telescope original was taken was our; the 12" Meade dome scope.)

(no gallery image submitted)

“Zak” Zachariah Snow
Astro 8A
Spring 2023
M27 “Dumbbell Nebula”. - Three exposures were taken with unknown equipment by a
prior student. Each image was dark frame corrected and colorized using CCDOPS, this
took roughly three to four attempts before they were transferred to REGISTAX where
they were merged together. Adobe Photoshop was then used to adjust the light curves.

Stephen Nama - no images or description submitted Keven Rosales - No images or description submitted

Selena Way-Garcia. M81

M81- Bode’s Galaxy: Three five-minute exposures were taken with the SBTGST 2000 XCM through the 12” Meade LX200. Each image was dark frame corrected, divided by the flat field, and colorized using CCDOps. All three corrected and colorized images were then stacked in RegiStax. The stacked images were then edited in Photoshop as follows: Curves edited to strong contrast, despeckled the image, levels increased to contrast 1, exposure was edited to +.45 and gamma correction to .98, contrast then edited to -36, despeckled the noise again, selected auto color, used the dodge tool to lighten areas, used spot healing brush tool to remove some of the larger stars in border areas, auto adjusted the tone, brightness adjusted to +10 and contrast to -13 and finally dodge tool used to lighten areas. Images were sized for 2 files that were saved in 16” and 3” and uploaded to Canvas. Lastly image was printed in 8x10 and framed.