Re: [APML] New Tricolor

["Bert Katzung" <katzung1@comcast.net>]

Hi Chuck:
Nice to see you posting again and congratulations on the new setup! Give the
other tricolor people a run for their money! I still remember being blown
away by your tricolor Pelican a year or two ago --- it almost (but not
quite) got me into doing TechPan tricolor. 8-)
Do you have the old Schaefer mount on a permanent pier? And you're able to
use the same OAG on the 4 inch focuser of the 155? You sure have great
tracking! Pinpoint stars, indeed.
Overall, the image seems a bit dark to me, but I tend to brighten things
more than most. I see a blue ring around the brighter stars on my
monitor --- could you be giving it too much blue exposure? (Maybe long
freezer storage increases blue sensitivity.) Otherwise, great results from
your new setup!
Bert

Bert Katzung
katzung1@comcast.net
www.astronomy-images.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chuck Vaughn" <aa6g@aa6g.org>
To: <astro-photo@seds.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 3:15 PM
Subject: [APML] New Tricolor


> List,
>
> It's been almost 2 years since I was able to take an astrophoto but I
> now have a temporary setup at my new place and can take photos again.
> What a joy it is to be able to walk out your back door, start a photo,
> climb into your own bed for a nap while it is autoguiding away.
>
> I haven't had time to update my web page so it's just a jpeg download.
> This is the IC5068 region south of the Pelican. This is not my most
> spectacular tricolor but it's more of an experiment with a new scope.
>
> http://www.aa6g.org/Astronomy/Astrophotos/ic5068.jpg   (186KB)
>
> Here are the details:
>
> AstroPhysics 155EDF
> Kodak TP2415 hypered
> Custom RGB Filters
> Exposure Times: R:G:B  90:180:180
>
> These are the first exposures I've taken with the 155EDF since I bought
> it used 2 years ago. I had done all the work to ready it for
> photography but never had an opportunity to use it. I didn't know what
> was going to happen. I'm very pleased with the image quality. The stars
> are very tiny.
>
> I decided to run the correct relative exposures unlike what I was doing
> with the old 130EDT, which was to run three 180 minute exposures and
> compensate in Photoshop by adjusting the green and blue exposures.
> Compared to previous tricolors, the red exposure is about 1/3 shorter
> and the green and blue are about 1/3 longer. When photographing
> nebulas, I'm considering taking two 90 minute red exposures and
> averaging them to reduce the overall grain somewhat. This could work
> out fine, a 90 min red and a 180 min green on one night and a 90 min
> red and a 180 min blue on another.
>
> A surprise was that there is no vignetting in the corners of the 35mm
> frame with this setup. I believed that to be impossible with a 35mm
> camera body. The only thing that is new is a much larger corrector
> lens. The OAG and the OM-1 are the same.
>
> FYI: I didn't have time to hyper new film so these exposures were taken
> on film hypered on Oct. 5, 2001 and stored in the freezer since then.
> TP lasts a long time!
>
> Notes on my new location... I'm 2 miles east of Mountain Ranch at 2500
> feet almost at the top of a hill. The only easily visible light
> pollution is coming from Sonora, which was a surprise, but my horizon
> is about 1 degree in that direction. My west is blocked by a hill up to
> about 10 degrees and I don't see much coming from the Central Valley.
> So far, under stable weather, the morning low is only 2-3 degrees F
> below the temperature at the end of twilight. The scope holds focus
> very well. Nights are calm to very light breezes, almost more of an air
> flow than real wind. There's quite a few planes on various routes so
> I'm bound to catch one sooner or later.
>
> Finally, I saw my first aurora on Aug. 24 at 0700 UTC. It went up to be
> about 30 degrees in the northeast, moved around and then disappeared in
> about 10 minutes. There was no color. It looked like light pollution.
> :-)
>
> Chuck <aa6g@aa6g.org>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Astro-Photo@seds.org
> http://seds.org/mailman/listinfo/astro-photo
>


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