WELCOME TO THE UNIVERSE AS SEEN THROUGH MY EYES

M1 - Crab Nebula

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 02:19:44 -0700

Happy New Year! I’m still working through my 2010 data. I have about six more to process, but this one was very fun. The data was strong and I was able to play around with a new deconvolution plugin for Photoshop called Topaz InFocus. The Topaz Mask plugin helped me isolate the nebula perfectly for manipulation. I recommend taking a look at their offerings. Check out the image in here.

M20 - Trifid Nebula

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 01:15:13 -0700

This was a fun target to process as it is very bright. This is a significant improvement over my prior attempt. The target is pretty low, only peaking at 35 degrees at the observatory. It makes getting sharp data quite a challenge. You have to overshoot and discard many images only holding on to the very best. This is called Image Culling. Check out the image in the Nebula section.

Slow Summer

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:05:21 -0700

I kept the observatory busy all summer and have built up a ton of data to work through. I am hoping to catch up shortly!

M13

Mon, 7 Jun 2010 14:29:53 -0700

I was able to complete M13 last month. It was challenging because the cluster is so bright. In order to go deep you have to take many short images to make sure you do not over expose the core. This causes a strain on the computer since every image is 20MB. I had over 142 images to combine to create this shot. It paid off as it is pretty deep. You can see galaxies all around it!

Pinwheel Galaxy

Mon, 3 May 2010 01:18:32 -0700

In April, I spent most of my time collimating the scope and touching up a few things with the scope setup. I was able to redo my 2008 image of M101. I’m very pleased with it’s outcome.