Rob Trek Forum

Following up on Rob's recent chat session on Astrophotography, I am posting links to some of my images. Most of these were taken with an Astronomical CCD camera which happens to have a micro 4/3 sized chip. Specifically it is a Kodak KAF 8300 sensor: https://www.universepics.net/

I have also posted some of these on a Flickr page where they may look a little better: https://www.flickr.com/photos/universepics/

Thanks Steve,
That is an impressive collection of near to far "AstroImages".
It was interesting to see the gear you used throughout the years. I could see getting hooked on the quest for these images.

Thank you Gearhead,

There is a fair amount of work that goes into getting these images, all of which were captured by cameras with monochrome Kodak CCD sensors cooled at a constant temperature, usually about 20 to 30 degrees C below the ambient temperature. I end up capturing numerous Individual images, of 5-15 minutes in length, through red, green, blue, and clear filters in FITS file format. Each individual image is calibrated using dark frames, flat field images and bias frames. The red, green, and blue frames are combined using astronomical imaging software to produce a 16bit TIF color file. The clear (monochrome) images are combined to yield a 16 bit TIF luminance file.

For the next stage in processing, I bring those two TIF files into Photoshop. When I first look at those TIF files, each of which represents hours of exposure, I see almost nothing. They are mostly dark. Taking a look at the histogram, I see a thin spike on the dark end of the histogram and almost nothing else. That is where the fun begins for me. I carefully stretch the image in stages using curves and levels, taking care not to light or dark clip as I go. This is the process that progressively brings the image "to life". I then stack the luminance and color files together such that the luminance file provides all of the detail and brightness, while the color file only provides color. There is obviously more to it than this, but that is what I do in an oversimplified nutshell.

Steve

Steve,

Thank you for explaining the process you use to achieve these spectacular images. I have read your explanation a couple of times to understand the effort it took to produce you amazing images. I was unaware of the KITS file format, interesting.

Steve,

Those are some amazing images! Really an inspiration for those interested in astrophotography. I'm going to see Ben next month to get hands on training.

Thanks for shaing!

Awesome shots. Not really my thing but I sure love these.

Thanks Plato and RobTrek,

I guess I've always been interested in Astronomy so the progression to astroimaging was pretty natural for me. I've also always done "normal" photography, especially when traveling, but never mastered the art. I understand how shutter speed, f-stop, ISO etc. work, but haven't mastered composition, lighting, story telling etc. I admire what you guys do and I am still trying to get there.

Steve