February Meeting Minutes
February 1, 2005
McCormick Observatory
Attendance: 27
Guest Speaker:
Steve Reilly, presenting: “Using a Web
Notes on presentation follow General club minutes.
View some of Steve’s pictures at is web-site: astral-imaging
Door Prize:
Miller’s Planisphere
Winner: John Avalone
Awards:
Dean Wilder, “Astronomical League Binocular Messier Club Award,” Issued Sept. 14, 2005
For more info on this award and others see: Astronomical League Observing Clubs
Club Business:
• 72 active members
• Checking account: $3,362.01
• Dues are past due – See Larry Saunders
• See Larry Saunders for information on discounted subscriptions to Astronomy and Sky and Telescope
• Public Outreach: 2 group nights in January and invited guests at our January observing session
• Bi-Monthly newsletter is now on web site
• Scheduled Observing, February 25th at Dogwood Ridge Observatory
• March 4 “Saturnalia” at Ivy Creek
Executive Council
Decisions:
• Purchase a Coronado PST CaK band solar scope
• Purchase mugs with CAS logo (one for each member and to give as gifts to guest speakers)
•
Schedule a “Saturnalia” public outreach event at
•
Schedule a Messier Marathon event for late March with
date and site TBA (Date and site now set as March 25th, at Susan’s
in
• Order 50 T-Shirts with Ken Harker’s Horsehead Logo for sale to members and at club events for $7
• Continue CAS involvement in local science fair but instead of the traditional plaque our prize will be a certificate and a pair of binoculars
• Look into purchasing a set of filters for the club, including OIII, H Beta and Night Sky H Alpha
• Schedule May 6 Astronomy Day activities
Upcoming Speakers:
•
March: David McDavid
(UVA Astronomy Dept.) - The Rapid Response
Telescope on
• April: Kelsey Johnson (UVA Astronomy Dept.) – The Most Extreme Modes of Star Formation in the Universe
• May: Jack Koester (CAS Member) – Antique Telescopes
Retreat 2006
•
Mark your calendar now for the weekend of August 25 –
27 at Bear Mountain Retreat in
Web Site of the Month
• http://www.exploradome.us/ Our own Richard Drumm and members of the Cloudy Nights forum have helped them to develop the specs.
Motions from the Floor:
• Dave Miller presented Ken Hawker with a beautiful black mug with Ken’s Horsehead Logo on it.
• Dean Wilder suggested that we should have CvilleAstro Hats made.
Notes from Guest Speaker’s Presentation:
Steve Reilly, presenting: “Using a Web
Before you begin check your equipment:
l Check Collimation of your optics,…then check again.
CCD inspector software to aid collimation
l Focus, Focus and focus again
Hartman mask will aid in focusing
l Good Polar Alignment
See Ken’s Notes
l Steady Tracking
l Camera
MaxIM is a good camera interface.
Setup:
l I suggest using a Barlow due to small size of planets. They are available from 1.5X to 5X. Using a higher power will require great to excellent seeing.
l Allow optical equipment to cool properly before attempting to continue.
l You can focus using the brightest stars visible. This will challenging if the sky isn’t steady as the focus will appear to shift in and out on it’s own.
l The higher towards the meridian, the better.
Software:
l There are any number of programs available to acquire the data. Below are two considerations:
l Philips VRecord, comes with the ToUCam
l K3CCDTools, downloadable at http://www.pk3.org/Astro/software.htm
l Both programs have help files
l After installing your software, read the help files and get familiar with it’s structures. Think about joining a Yahoo group that supports your interests in this field.
l Connect the camera and start getting familiar with the settings via software. Test the different settings. Use common sense approach as to exposure. If it’s too bright, use a faster shutter speed.
l After deciding on frame rates, test the gain and other controls. Each evening will be somewhat different due to local seeing changes.
l Check focus as temperature changes, no less than every 2-3 degrees until you learn the temperature characteristics.
Acquiring Data:
l Be prepared to take hundreds, maybe thousands of frames. Be prepared to discard 70-80% of those. Use the software to determine the best of the frames for the final stack.
l Take a number of different .avi files as the evening progresses if the seeing improves.
l Practice this procedures many times. Don’t expect this to work perfect every time but hope for several times with time.
l Work with the data many times to see if you can eek out the fine details by changing the processing parameters.
Processing Data, The basics:
l This is a basic workflow for Registax version 3a:
l After starting the program, choose “Select” to pick the .avi file to process.
l Registax will tell you if it appears to be a color file and check the “Use Color” box.
l For starters check the “”Processing Automatic” box.
l The next should be “Alignment box”, pick the size that covers the object.
Short Demo:
l This will be done using file Sat02070000.avi. It consists of 1,009 frames of Saturn.
l Use “Classic Method” under Quality estimate and the default 80%.
l At this point you are ready to “Align” the images in the file. Choose align and wait for the images to be aligned. There is a progress bar that shows progress along with the number of images in the .avi file.
l After aligning, this images are Optimized and then stacked according to the quality settings.
l At this point the wavelet screen opens. This is where you will really experiment with the settings. Use each slider to see the effects on image. Usually the first 3-4 sliders used slightly will yield good results.
l Once you have the image as you like, be sure to save your results. I would also suggest going back using the same .avi file and reprocess using different settings and compare the results.