Re: [APML] March results

["Brian Lula" <brianl@polytecpi.com>]

Hi Jeff,

Great to see your work again! The wide field of the Cone and Rosette was super but the Ha 
was downright awesome. When are you heading to New Mexico skies?

Take care, Brian

On 22 Mar 03, at 19:26, Jeff Ball wrote:

> 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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Brian Lula
Polytec PI, Inc.
(508) 832-3456
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