Hahnenberg Observatory AstrophotographyEd Hahnenberg, BA, MA, MA, Ed.S.

Hahnenberg Observatory

The New Meade 14” ACF Telescope

PRESENT SCOPES8” Orion ReflectorPST Coronado h-Alpha solar scope80 mm tracking scope14” Meade LX200 Acf TelescopeThe Shed & 10” LX200 Classic

Orion and Celestron produce quality telescopes.Celestron sells a 14” GPS model.The Celestron 11” with tripod …Other Telescopes

There were two choices to achieve a place for a permanent pier1. Use of slide-off roof2. Use of a domeMaking the decision …

I could not see myself sitting in freezing weather without a roof over my head. I chose the dome with a heater inside.Cutting hole for pier…The decision is made…

Tracking DSOsNo setup timeParking the scopeUse of CCD camera(Charge-coupled Device)Reasons for the Permanent Pier

Photography of astronomical objects brings many difficult problems as compared to the photography as most people know. The exposure times can be very long (even tens of minutes) and the lenses, or telescopes used, typically characterized with big focal lengths (thousands of millimeters). This means that the photographed objects must be well guided during the exposure and that the noise (that increases with the exposure time) can spoil the efforts.When we add to this problems with light pollution, quality of optics (even smallest imperfections are clearly visible in case of photographing stars) and the weather, astrophotography appears to be very difficult.What is more, there are the same problems as in the "normal" photography. One of them is the high dynamic range of the photographed objects.Taking astrophotographs…

PolyDome, headquartered in Minnesota, ships the Exploradome anywhere in the US for $350. The dome cost $1414. Roof panels $418.The semi that changed my world…

Dome is 8’ in diameter and revolves manually. Notice the permanent pier in the 4’ X 12” Sonotube.The arrival of the Explora-Dome ….

Note the Schaub crew beginning the building process. Look carefully at the permanent pier with the pier plate atop.Adding the 10’ X 10’ X 10’ room

The Schaub crew took exactly 1 ½ days to complete the entire project.Still a ways from putting the dome in place…

The Explora-Dome will mount on top of the add-on room.Angled framing was necessary for roof panels.The 10’ X10’ X 10’ X 54” room

Scope is inside dome, mounted on permanent pier, pier plate, and Meade Ultrawedge.End of day one, Oct. 31, 2008

A 10’ 6” X 36” piece of aluminum flashing was cut to drain west to prevent rain and melting snow from leaking into the original shed. No leaks yet…Rain & snow problem solution

A specially cut steel door with padlock and chain added later provide security for the two room observatory.Entry to the Observatory

Nikon Coolpix 995Canon EOS Rebel XTSBIG ST-4000XCM 2 CCD cameraMeade LPIOrion Star-shoot AutoguiderCameras

Other CCD camerasSBIG produces high end cameras. Hahnenberg Observatory acquired an SBIG ST-4000XCM 2 CCD camera in Jan. 2009, increasing its astrophotography capabilities.Starlight Express – MX 716…a camera once owned by Hahnenberg Observatory

Webcam useIn recent years, webcam imaging has become increasingly popular among amateur astronomers. It is easy to see why: they are inexpensive (< $100) and it is possible, with practice, to produce some truly amazing images.Keep in mind that webcams cannot be used "out of the box" for astro-imaging. You'll have to do some tinkering before you can use a webcam on your telescope.

Webcams - 1A home-made web-cam unitCheap, but effectiveWeb-cameras come in all shapes and sizes but not all are suitable for astronomy imaging purposes. Here, a Logitech QuickCam Express is used.One can simply uscrew the lens assembly from minand hot-glued a slightly modified round case.

The results of the Logitech webcamIngenuity of Geoff ChesterAstrostack, Logitech, and Gassendi

Webcams - 2Astrovid 2000Live imaging to TVThere are limits to live imaging with the Astrovid. It will not do deep sky images. It is (in my opinion) only for Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Solar, and lunar type images.

Webcams - 3Another live imagerMallicam webcamThe MallinCam Hyper Plus operates by sending video images to a TV screen for easy viewing real time by more than one observer. Simultaneously, the video signal can be sent to a camcorder, VCR, or DVD burner. Expensive, but given high marks and can take DSOs of short exposures.

The user-friendly astrophotography revolution continued with the introduction of the new DSI III. It combines ease-of-use with a 1.4 megapixel chip, higher resolution, wider field of view and lower thermal noise. Meade engineers have invented a remarkable new way to reduce noise without a cooling fan. This means you can stack exposures for hours at a time. The thermal monitoring sensors automatically match your dark frames to ambient temperature.The Meade DSI III color camera

The software includes a zoom feature for easier focusing and the square pixels of the new larger chip make processing simpler and images more beautiful than ever. With extremely low noise, the DSI III is the world's best un-cooled astro imager.The Meade DSI III camera (cont.)

Problem solved. The StarShootAutoGuider provides a user-friendly, dedicated autoguiding system for long-exposure astrophotography. It's compatible with virtually any mount equipped with an autoguider port and comes with the software and cables needed to work right out of the box!Autoguiding has revolutionized the capture of deep-sky images by mechanizing the tedious and tiring method of "manually" guiding an exposure, which involved staring endlessly into an illuminated reticle eyepiece while tweaking your mount's electronic drive controls by hand to keep the stars pinpoint sharp. Until now, the problem has always been the lack of a simple, affordable autoguider camera to do the job.The StarshooterAutoguider

The Autoguider is inserted into an 80 mm telescope mounted to the main scope.The Orion Star-shooter Autoguider

The Guider tracks a target star to keep the scope dead-on for the Meade DSI III CCD camera to image the desired planet or DSO.Auto-guiding

Types of telescopes - IMy Orion 8” Newtonian ReflectorReflectors are great for viewing faint, deep-sky objects like galaxies, star clusters and nebula.

Types of telescopes – 1 (cont.)The Dobsonian telescopeAn Orion 6” DobsonThe basic idea driving the original design is to make large aperture telescopes affordable, easy to make, and portable. It is a combined concept that allows the builder with minimal skill to make an extremely large telescope out of common items found in any hardware store or scrap yard.

Types of telescopes - 2RefractorsOrion 60 mm refractorThese are telescopes that use refracting lenses housed in a long, thin tube mounted on a tripod. Refractors are great for viewing the sun, moon and planets where magnification detail is important but brightness is not. Upright images.

Types of telescopes - 3Compound or cadioptricMeade 14” Schmidt CassegrainCompound scopes use both refracting lenses and reflecting mirrors in their design to provide a compact form factor. They include those of Schmidt, Cassegrain (Cass), Maksutov (Mak) and hybrid designs.

Attached to it is the Solar H-alpha telescope for viewing the sun’s flares, prominences, and sunspot activity…Coronado PST… and an 80 mm guide scope.My Meade LX200 14” GPS / SCT

Inside the new observatoryDesktop computer controls telescope movement, focusing, and imaging.Meade 14” atop pier inside rotating dome.

Access to the telescopeWatch your head!Inside the dome – ladder needed at times.

Settings on the scope and wedgeControl panel and camera focuserLatitude setting and wedge control

Astronomical chartsStar chart 2000Detailed star chart

The larger the mm of the eyepiece the wider and smaller the magnification. The illuminated reticle has red crosshairs for accurate centering.Eyepieces…1.25 and 2 inch

Many nights the atmosphere contains high humidity, thus resulting in a fogging over of the main imaging scope. Dew heaters, or more simple dew shields, are used to prevent this. It is attached to the end of the scopeDew Shield

Additional eyepieces, connecting rings, collimeter, and several filters (mainly for planets and lunar use) are stored in handy cases.Other accessories

Getting ready to take a picture…Adjusting finderscope, guiding scope, and main scopeHahnenberg Observatory Clear Skies forecastComputer powered up & Scope polar-alignedSelection of object to imageUse of Autoguider and PHD tracking softwareFocusing and time selection of DSI III on DSOPicture taking (15 sec upwards X 50 plus)Taking of darks and automatic stacking

Adjusting finderscope, guiding scope, and main scope

Hahnenberg Observatory Clear Skies forecast

Computer powered up & Scope polar-aligned

Selection of object to image

Use of Autoguider and PHD tracking software

Focusing and time selection of DSI III on DSO

Picture taking (15 sec upwards X 50 plus)

Taking of darks and automatic stacking

Clear skies forecast

Focusing three telescopes togetherThe process of focusing finderscope, guide scope, and main scope should be done in daylight.Pick an object … use an electric transformer with a number.Adjust all three to center the number.

Images in a telescope – Part lIn order to get an image to correctly reflect what the viewer sees without a scope the photographed image has to be tipped upside down, then turned to face the opposite direction, or reversed. Software does this easily. The "incorrect" image in a telescope has to do with the way in which certain kinds of telescopes view the object. To get a correct image with a telescope, as one in binoculars, would require far larger instruments due to the optics of the mirrors inside.

Images in a telescope – Part IIOne of the most surprising discoveries first-time telescope owners will find is that images may appear upside-down or backwards depending on the type of telescope. The first thought is the telescope is broken - when in fact it is working perfectly normal. Depending on the type of telescope images may appear correct, upside-down, rotated, or inversed from left to right. For astronomical viewing, it is not important whether an object is shown

Rotate dome to take imageThe dome has a slide-back cover and a fold-down opening to give a 28” window X 90 degrees of the sky.

Taking pictures of planets – IPlanet comes from the Greek word πλανήτοs, which means “wanderer.”In order to take a picture of a planet, one must be aware there is a different motion speed and direction than that of the moon or stars.So, there is planetary motion, lunar motion, and sidereal motion.

Taking pictures of planets - 2Fortunately, with CCD cameras, one does not have tracking problems, because images are taken in 100ths or thousandths of a second.Digital or film cameras are less sensitive to light, so one might need to use a shutter control.

Experimenting with exposure time and gain control gives different results. This image was a BMP image of less than ½ a second.One of my better images of Jupiter

Saturn will tilt its rings during 2009 so that no rings will be visible. Bummer!Saturn with Meade DSI I taken 2 years ago

Venus was in 60% crescent stage. DSI III image at less than .01 second. No features are visible unless filter is used.Venus – December 18th, 2008

August of 2003 was a special time. Mars moved closer than it’s been in 50,000 years. On August 27, 2003, it was less than 34.65 million miles away from the Earth. Notice ice cap.Mars in August, 2003. Nikon Coolpix 995

Uranus is 1.7 billion miles away from earth, between Saturn and Neptune.All four gas planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have rings, although Saturn’s are the most spectacular.Uranus – DSI III - Less than .05 second image

Rings of JupiterAlthough extremely hard to see, Jupiter does have rings plus 63 moons. Four moons are usually visible.

Color distortion not in original image. Planet is a blue gas planet and is the farthest of the eight from the sun.Neptune at 2.7 billion miles away

Deep Sky Object (DSO) is a term used by astronomers to describe mostly faint astronomical objects outside the solar system, such as star clusters, nebulae, or galaxies. They are hundreds to billions of light-years distant from Earth.The Messier objects are a set of astronomical objects first listed by French astronomer Charles Messier in his Catalogue of Nebulae and Star Clusters published in 1771. There are 110 Messier objects.DSOs and Messier Objects

A BMP image of 15 seconds, with color adjustment in PhotoshopM57 - The Ring Nebula

One BMP image at 30 seconds, no darks.M82 – The Irregular Galaxy

DSI III image (15 seconds). It is a giant cloud of interstellar matter which is currently undergoing vivid star formation. It is one of the finest and brightest star-forming regions in the skyThe Lagoon Nebula Messier 8 (M8, NGC 6523)

One of my first attempts to image it. It contains the famous Trapezium…next imageM 42 – The Orion Nebula

Although only four stars are visible in this 2 sec. image, at least six can be resolved.The famous Trapezium in the Orion Nebula

M27 – Dumbbell Nebula . M27 was the first planetary nebula to be discovered. Planetary nebulae are formed in the dying stages of a star when the core fusion reactions decline to the extent that the star's structure cannot be supported - gravity forces the outer part of the star to collapse inwards. Obviously, hot pixels are present.

Hot pixels - 1There is a lot of talk about noise and hot pixels on longer exposure shots with digital cameras. Is this really a problem? In astrophotograpy, yes. Note that this page deals with hot pixels on the CCD (the sensor in the camera) that actually appear on your pictures, not hot pixels that you might see on the LCD screen, which is a different topic. Hot pixels on the LCD screen seem to be common on many brands of cameras, and most manufacturers will tell you that number can be tolerated and are not grounds for replacement.

Hot pixels - 2Hot pixels are individual sensors on the CCD with higher than normal rates of charge leakage. They can appear as small pixel sized bright points of light on longer exposures. Every pixel on the CCD has some charge leakage, and if you expose long enough, any pixel would light up. On a long exposure, you will see pixels ranging from just barely visible to possibly bright hot starlike points. There might be a few bright hot pixels, more intermediate one, and lots of very faint ones, an entire spectrum of brightness.

Hot pixels - 3Most cameras made after 2002 now have a noise reduction technique used on longer exposures that involves taking a duplicate exposure with the lens covered that is then subtracted from the main exposure. The Meade DSI III needs to have “darks” taken if ambient temperature changes by .5 of a degree. One can build a library of darks, so picture taking does not have to be interrupted.

M 51& 52 – Whirlpool GalaxyThe Whirlpool Galaxy a popular target for professionals, who study it to further understand galaxy structure with spiral arms.

The Pinwheel Galaxy – M101Hot pixels are apparent in this 30 sec. focus image.

NGC 5905 – The Splinter GalaxyMy first image of an NGC DSO.

M100 is a spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way, and tilted nearly face-on as seen from earth.

At 25 million lights years away, M106 is the closest example of a Seyfert galaxy, where large amounts of gas are thought to be falling into a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.

M5, a large star cluster - DSI III . M5 is one of the larger globular clusters. At its distance of 24,500 light years, it is actually receding from our galaxy.

The famous Pillars of Creation image. The black appearing eagle is the central pillar, with the two side pillars showing up faintly.M16 – The Eagle Nebula

The largest and closest star cluster in the Milky Way.M22 – Globular Cluster

M8 – The Lagoon Nebula

M17 - The Swan Nebula

The Veil Nebula

Pictures of the moon…At high magnification, the moon moves extremely rapidly, but a Go-To scope may have a lunar tracking speed control. When observing the moon at high magnification, a filter is necessary to cut down on the brightness. This is not necessary for CCD imaging.

One of many lunar images taken with the DSI III CCD camera. Moon in ½ crescent stage. No filter used. Exposure less than .02 of a second.Lunar image of the crater Tycho

Lunar image – DSI IIICopernicus (twin mountain peaks) ,Eratosthenes, and the 400 mile long Appennine mountain range.

Apollo 15 was the fourth landing on the Moon and was the first to use the Lunar Rover Vehicle. Landed on Moon July 30, 1971.Mons Hadley in Apennines

The LROC’s image of Apollo 14’s site. Notice astronaut’s footprints between LM pod and Instrument site. Image taken mid-July, 2009.

Plato is the maria-surfaced remains of a lunar imapact crater. The age of the Plato walled-plain is about 3.84 billion yearsPlato crater – DSI III

Mounting digital or film camerasEyepiece photographyT-Ring adaptor

Dome is rain and snow- proof, but getting there in a heavy snow season is by snowmobile.Astrophotography in winter

Astrophotography in daylightThe Personal Solar TelescopeImage of Sun in h-Alpha

A telescope extender allows higher magnificationExtender fits over eyepiece. Then extender is attached to camera and scope.

Photographing the sunViewing the sun is very dangerous in a telescope. NEVER DO IT without a filter, for both the finderscope and main scope.

Nikon Coolpix 995, ISO 100, f/4.6/ and at 1/88th of a secondSunspots taken with Meade LX200 12” & filter

Images such as this are possible with our Coronado solar telescope.Solar flare in h-alpha

Nikon Coolpix 995 attached with T-ring and using a solar filter. More sunspots

Coronado h-alpha telescope pictureSun spot with h-Alpha filter

A word about JPEG and FITS filesJPEG imagesFITS images(Joint Photographic Experts Group) An ISO/ITU standard for compressing still images. JPEGs are saved on a sliding resolution scale based on the quality desired. For example, an image can be saved in high quality for photo printing, in medium quality for the Web and in low quality for attaching to e-mails, the latter providing the smallest file size for fastest transmission over dial-up connections.The standard data format used in astronomy Stands for 'Flexible Image Transport System' Endorsed by NASA and the International Astronomical Union Much more than just another image format (such as JPEG or GIF) Used for the transport, analysis, and archival storage of scientific data sets

BMP and GIF filesBMP imagesGIF imagesThe letters "GIF" actually stand for "Graphics Interchange Format.” GIFs are based on indexed colors, which is a palette of at most 256 colors. This helps greatly reduce their file size. These compressed image files can be quickly transmitted over a network or the Internet, which is why you often see them on Web pages. GIF files lack the color range to be used for high-quality photos.Short for "Bitmap." The BMP format stores color data for each pixel in the image without any compression. For example, a 10x10 pixel BMP image will include color data for 100 pixels. This method of storing image information allows for crisp, high-quality graphics, but also produces large file sizes.

Stacking image programsThere are many astrophotography image programs. Astroart, Photoshop, Maxim DL, Astrostack, Registax, CCD Soft and dedicated programs included in telescope company’s software such as Meade’s AutoStar Suite. Their function is to align and sharpen images.

Registax sample of Uranus

Image processing softwarePhotoshop is generally considered the best. However, I have found that easyHDR Pro is much less expensive. A sample follows:

Imaging M42 with easyHDR Pro - 1 M42 is the largest nebula visible to those on earth. It is located just below the three stars in Orion the Hunter’s belt. It covers an area larger than a full moon. It is very difficult to image because of its bright Trapezium center, as seen in a prior slide.

The photos were taken at 4 and 15 seconds of exposure.

Images taken at 1 and 5 min.

It is very difficult (top shelf class equipment is needed) to take a photo with properly exposed core as well as the outer fine detail. EasyHDR Pro did this effortlessly.Imaging M42 with easyHDR Pro - 2

Using easyHDR Pro (before & after)

Digital cameras & easyHDR ProMaking bad pictures look good….

Looking to the futureAfter several years of reading books, blogs, and upgrading equipment, I still consider myself a beginning astrophotographer. Each year technology in the amateur astronomy field comes out with new cameras, software, and telescopes. Let’s look in detail at how to take DSOs worthy of publication.

The Meade LX200 has a library of 144,000 Go-to objects. I think getting to just a few hundred of them and imaging them well will take me a few evenings. Some of these objects are galaxies 700 million light years a way, just a fraction of time from the Big Bang 13.7 billion light years ago.A universe to explore…

Some of Hubble’s best…The Hubble Telescope has provided some spectacular images of the 500,000 known galaxies, each with 100 billion to our own Milky Way’s 400 billion stars. The following frames are a sampling of what lies around us…

M16 – The Eagle NebulaAppearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 57 trillion miles high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star.

M104 – Sombrero GalaxyHubble easily resolves M104's rich system of globular clusters, estimated to be nearly 2,000 in number -- 10 times as many as orbit our Milky Way galaxy. The ages of the clusters are similar to the clusters in the Milky Way, ranging from 10-13 billion years old.

Omega CentauriOmega Centauri is so large in our sky that only a small part of it fits within the field of view of the Hubble Space Telescope. Yet even this tiny patch contains some 50,000 stars, all packed into a region only about 13 light-years wide. For comparison, a similarly sized region centered on the Sun would contain about a half dozen stars.

The Helix NebulaIt is similar in appearance to the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle.The Helix has often been referred to as the 'Eye of God' on the Internet, since about 2003.

NGC 2440The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center.

Supernova 1987a – Will it be seen in daylight? 1987A was generated by a star 20 times more massive than the Sun. It resides in a nearby galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Because of the time it takes light from the event to reach Hubble, the explosion actually occurred 160,000 years ago, in the time frame of its origin.

We are looking at an image that is no longer there as shown, but was 7000 light years ago. The universe continues to expand, faster outward each day. It will end not with a bang, but with a whimper, according to scientists and T.S. Elliot. Pillars has become one of the most famous images of modern times. Pillars of Creation

Jupiter's moon Ganymede plays peek-a-booThis color photo was made from three images taken on April 9, 2007

Detection of new exo-planetsWhat a Canadian team found in 2004, and confirmed again Nov, 2008, are three planets circling the star. According to a theoretical model that accounts for the light coming from the planets, they range in size from five to 13 times the mass of Jupiter and are probably only about 60 million years old. The HR 8799 solar systemWhile over three hundred exoplanets have been discovered by noting wobble of host stars, a trio of exoplanets have been directly imaged.

Next Hubble - (JWST) Hubble is only 353 miles from earth. Launched 1990.The James Webb Space Telescope…between earth and sun, and past moon.The $4.5bn telescope will take up a position some 930,000 miles from Earth. It will measure 80ft long by 40ft high and incorporate a hexagonal mirror 21.3ft in diameter, almost three times the size of Hubble's. It will be launched in June 2013 and have a 10 yr. life.

My real stars ….My real stars…Matt, Marie, and Ben … along with Therese, Ed, Liz, Nick, Rose, and my wife Marlene.

Check out our blogBe sure to keep up with our website:www.astronomy-leelanau.blogspot.com.