Tools of the Trade, Transit of Venus, Norman Falla - Asteroid Articles, Support Page and Customer Showcase!

Tools of the Trade
 

Jan 9, 2006 APOD winning Tarantula Nebula by Brad Moore of iTelescope.Net

 
One thing we have noticed over the years is that the entrance into remote astrophotography can be expensive when it comes to post production of your data.  Programs like Photoshop are amazing, and they are the best there is when it comes to post production, but there are other options out there that will save you a bit of money, and can be just as effective.  We would like to take  a moment to show you those other options in this newsletter and hope this information will be of some assistance to you.  


Stacking Tools

Stacking your images if the best way to pull out as much data as you can before processing.  There are two great tools when it comes to stacking, MaximDL and CCDStack.  Both have advantages and disadvantages, but both are less than $300.00.  There are a few others like DeepSkyStacker and RegiStax6 that also do well on a budget, but in the end, they do not compare with the functionality of MaximDL and CCDStack

CCDStack

The First is CCDStack.  CCDStack is a software program that provides you with many tools to process, assemble and view your astronomical images, and it runs about $199.00. CCDStack uses sophisticated statistical concepts and methods to optimize stacking processes. CCDStack’s intuitive interface is straight-forward with unique and insightful displays of images and data.  Once you open your image data in CCDStack it can do the following:
  • Dark, Flat and Bias frame calibration
  • Star Bloom Removal
  • Image alignment and registration
  • Re-sampling of registered images
  • Image normalization
  • Advanced Data Rejection
  • Image Combine
  • Gradient Removal
  • Real-Time DDP Display
  • Deconvolution and Sharpening
  • Full LRGB Color Capabilities
Here is a quick video that goes over the basic features of CCDStack from CCDStack's main Video Tutorial page:




Maxim DL IP

The other software program we wanted to highlight is MaximDL IP.  Maxim DL Version 5, is the premiere package for astronomical CCD imaging and image processing.  It comes in five different varieties.  We recommend MaximDL IP for image processing and you can see what each version does here.  The following is a great video series by John Blackwell that shows all the details of MaximDL 5 processing from start to finish:




Processing Tools

Once you have aligned and stacked your images, it is time to clean them up with some Processing software.  Photoshop is the best in the business when it comes to processing, but at $700+, it may be a little too expensive when your getting started.  So we bring you two alternatives.  StarTools and GIMP.  

StarTools

StarTools is a great alternative when your on a budget!  It offers features like Automated and Assisted Processing, Simplicity and User-friendliness, Signal Fidelity and Noise Mitigation, as well as the following Modules:
  • Band: Banding Reduction
  • Bin:  Trade Resolution for Noise Reduction
  • Boost:  Feature Manipulation by Color
  • Contrast:  Local Contrast Optimization
  • De-Noise:  Detail Aware Wavelet-based Noise Reduction
  • Deconvolution:  Detail Recovery from Seeing-Limited Data
  • Develop:  Automated Global Stretching
  • Flux:  Automated Astronomical Feature Recognition and Manipulation
  • Heal:  Unwanted Feature Removal
  • Layer:  Versatile Pixel Workbench
  • LRGB:  Intelligent Multi-channel Image Compositing
  • Lens:  Digital Lens and Mirror Distortion Correction and Field Flattening
  • Magic:  Star Appearance Manipulation
  • Life:  Global Light Diffraction Remodeling Imparts Depth and Life to Astronomical Images
  • Optimize:  Automated Dynamic Range Optimization
  • Repair:  Star Rounding and Repair
  • Sharp:  Wavelet-based Detail Aware Structural Detail Sharpening
  • Synth:  Star Re synthesize and Augmentation
  • Wipe:  Light Pollution, Vignetting and Gradient Removal
StarTools forums already have a number of great PDF tutorials on how to use the software.  You can locate them here

GIMP

Another alternative to Photoshop is GIMP.  GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It offers full alpha channel support, layers and channels, multiple Undo/Redo (limited only by disk space), editable text layers, transformation tools including rotate, scale, shear and flip, selection tools including rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy, foreground extraction tool, advanced path tool doing Bezier and polygonal selections, transformable paths, transformable selections, and quick mask to paint a selection.  The only downside of GIMP is that it was designed to cover numerous uses, rather then specializing in astrophotography processing like StarTools.  

Gimp has an overabundance of tutorials on their main page.  Most of these come in PDF format, and focus on features of GIMP, rather then specifically how to process astronomical data.  You can locate them
here.  



Transit of Venus:  iTelescopeTV
 

Earlier this month, the historical Transit of Venus was captured Live by our newest feature, iTelescopeTV.  Despite a few technical glitches, and little bit of cloudy weather near the end, the event was a dramatic success!  We had 10,445 Unique Viewers, 14,016 Total Viewers, our active viewers peaked at over 1,700+, with an average of 850+ viewers on line at any given time and 800+ people in the chat room discussing the transit.  We also had 35+ other websites linking our stream. We where the top referral broadcast link for the ABC Science website.  

This was an amazing and historical event for the entire Astronomical Community and we were so happy to be a part of it!  If you missed the event, you can watch the highlight video of the transit here


Customer Focus:  Norman Falla, Discovering Asteroids - What's the Story?



Norman Falla of the UK has written a series of articles in which he shows us how amateur astronomers, using the iTelescope.Net equipment, can discover asteroids.  His aim in these articles is to give an overall introduction to what is involved and then in subsequent articles to detail the various stages in the discovery process. This approach will have the advantage that it will be restricted to telescopes currently available to you at iTelescope.Net. It will also include details of some of the pitfalls that he encountered along the way and what you need to do to avoid them.  You can read the full article
here.


Feature Focus:  Support Page

We wanted to highlight some of the Features you may not know about at iTelescope.Net.  So each month we are going to pick one feature of the iTelescope.Net service and show you a bit more information about it.  This month we are going to focus on the Support Page, and what you can find there.



 
Support Page Basics

The Support Page has many features you can access to help make it easier to use your iTelescope.Net Account.  From the main Support Page, you can see our latest Alerts by scrolling down.  These will be important changes at iTelescope.Net.  Everything from Camera CCD adjustments, downtime and errors that show up on our system.  You can also access our Forums and Knowledge Base form here.  It will have everything from user forums to FAQs.  Finally, you can create a ticket from this page by clicking "New".  This will allow you to create a ticket so an iTelescope.Net Agent can assist you.  Here is a quick video tutorial explaining how to get the Support Page, and it's many features:
 


Customer Showcase: Pick Your Target

Last month, we asked you to start imaging and post those images on Facebook and you responded!  The below image was the best of the Facebook submissions!  We also have a page in our gallery just to further highlight these accomplishments that you can check out here.


Our first image we'd like to highlight is from Roger Rao.  He took an image of NGC 6559, which transits at a max altitude of only 33°.  This image was taken on T11, comprised of 6 x 5 minutes of Luminance and 2 x 5 minutes of Red, Green and Blue.  This is Roger's second time in the Customer Showcase!  We cannot wait to see what he does next! 


Our second highlight is Rolando Ligustri.  Rolando has been a long time iTelescope.Net customer and is one of our greatest comet hunters!  Pictured above is Rolando's latest, Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs on June 11th, also taken on T11.  The comet is passing through the vast nebula, LBN1092.  Pictured below is a mosaic poster project Rolando is working on, currently including 83 Messier objects!  



Next Month's Showcase: Pick Your Target:  Contest

With our customers getting involved with the Showcase, we have decided to take it to the next level!  So now you, our customers, will pick the winners for each month!  We are also going to update the format to being a monthly contest.  To take part, all you need to do is post your image on our 
Facebook page (please include what telescope, the number of exposures, filter used during exposures, how long each exposure lasted, and the tools used to process the image).  The deadline for submissions is July 15th, 2012.

Then you, our customers, will vote on each Astrophotographic or Scientific image by clicking "Like" on Facebook. On the 16th of July, we will add up who has the most "Likes" for images posted between June 15th and July 15th and they will be our winners.  First place (most "likes") will win 100 points on iTelescope.Net and second will earn 50 points.  If there are any ties, iTelescope.Net will break the tie.  

We will showcase our winners in our July Newsletter as well as on our Showcase Winner image gallery.  We can't wait to see what you post this time!
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