Wide-Field Astrophotography Made Easy Workshop II (daytime), by Robert Reeves

Abstract:

This course will demonstrate how easy it is for the novice, who has never taken an astrophoto before, to achieve great widefield astrophoto results using their own DSLR camera and lens.

Through two courses, we’ll shepherd the user through the principles of nighttime image acquisition followed by this daytime lab exercise to process the subframes into an astrophoto that can be displayed.

In this daytime lab exercise we’ll cover these topics:

  • Image stacking and dark frame subtraction of the acquired light and dark frames
  • “Normalization” of the sky background
  • Color correction
  • Enhancement of image details

Prerequisites:

  • You must provide your own:
    • Computer or laptop, and connecting cables if any
    • Sets of raw images, to be combined during workshop.  You can get these from:
    • Image Processing software installed and running on computer (see list below)
  • The following software will be used by all participants.  Image stacking and dark frame subtraction will be performed with the freeware Deep Sky Stacker.  Actual image processing will be performed either in Adobe Photoshop (versions 7 and above are acceptable) or if the user does not have Photoshop, the freeware program The GIMP, which has the required Photoshop-like actions.
  • You must already be familiar with processing images with your setup. Our focus will be on technique and optimization.
  • You are responsible for mastering the use of your software prior to the Imaging Conference.
    • You must be able to program/combine a sequence of six sequential 5-minute exposures with your camera and software.

 

Evening session (approximately 1 hour per student)

Sign up (separately) for a night-time session that brings you hands-on training at our scope. We’ll start you off taking your own images, which you will use during this daytime session to perform advanced image processing. Bring your own camera and computer and we’ll provide the mount and telescope.

Daytime session (approximately 4 hours)

This unique hands-on daytime session brings you hands-on training. We’ll take the images you acquired during the nighttime session, and show you how to perform advanced image processing. There will be an initial hour of demo on various software programs and the basic steps. Then we’ll work with you 1-on-1 to help you get the best possible results from image processing.