[APML] March results

["Jeff Ball" <jeffball@zoominternet.net>]

Hello all,
Hope all is well.  Finally getting finished on March.  We have had a very
nice break after a rough winter.

The first image is mainly a test of a new Pentax 300mm lens for the 6x7.  I
shot this wide open at f4.  The image I am linking to is a crop of the most
interesting part of the image.  The winter Milky Way with a nearly quarter
moon is not the best time for this lens.  I am intending to use it this
summer on the Milky Way.  There is definitely some coma in the corners, but
not too bad.  I focused with my usual loop on the screen and found a spot
just barely shy of the infinity mark to be about right.  These images were
from 10-30 minutes in duration.  I am hoping to expose a little longer at
New Mexico skies.

http://www.astro-photography.com/rosette_cone.htm


I shot some Halpha of the swiftly moving winter Milky Way objects and was
left with my TV101 on the mount as the galaxies came rolling across the sky.
So, I shot some wide field galaxy shots.

This is an RGB from PPF with ST10 CCD of M81/82.  Be easy, it is only 540mm
focal length.  I found the analog gain adjustment with the Nikon scanner to
be of use again.  I scanned the negatives with two different settings which
gave me two different core exposures to work with.  It was like layering CCD
image data from the same exposure.  That is one big advantage I have found
with CCD data.  The ability to stretch the 16 bit data and save at various
intervals and then layer the darker stretches on top of the brighter
stretches of the same image is very easy.  The analog gain feature is useful
for film in the same manner.
http://www.astro-photography.com/m81_lrgb.htm

Here is a black and white M51.  There seems to be a large concentration of
small galaxies to the right of the bright star.  The 100% enlargement shows
this better.

http://www.astro-photography.com/m51_small_wide.htm

100% enlargement

http://www.astro-photography.com/m51_large_wide.htm

I enjoyed some actual viewing thru the AP 130f8 the other night.  It was
awesome to look thru an eyepiece again.  But, I just had to put a camera on.
I went with the digital camera.  Now, I am waiting for some slides and print
film to be processed of the Moon I shot the same night.  I am hoping to
catch the subtle lunar colorations.  I will post next week with a digital
vs. print/slide film comparison on the moon.  I wanted to get a large print
from the film/slide, but may be forced to rez up the digital camera file if
it wins in overall sharpness.

This is a fully automatic shot with the Nikon 995.  I only applied unsharp
mask.  I think the coloration in Aristarchus is quite detectable.  I felt
that this processing captured the Moon as I saw it visually.

Full Moon
http://www.astro-photography.com/natural_fullmoon.htm

Aristarchus close-up

http://www.astro-photography.com/aristarchus.htm

Jupiter processed to capture the view through the eyepiece that I had this
night.  I had a chance to use ImagesPlus on the stacking of these images and
it is extremely easy to do.  Thanks to Mike Unsold for a great program.  I
look forward to learning more about it.

http://www.astro-photography.com/jupiter_march.htm


I did not think I was going to get this object, but windows opened for
Rosette in Halpha.  I tried putting color from film with this and it just is
not working out.

http://www.astro-photography.com/rosette_halpha.htm

I shot the Cone region in Halpha and only got about 2 hours which does not
seem to be enough to process the way I would like.

Hope you like them.  Any comments welcome.

Jeff Ball
www.astro-photography.com

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