Hcas Newsletter 2017 - 1st Quarter.pages

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2017 HCAS Newsletter www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar 1 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Harford County Astronomical Society | Bel Air, Maryland Upcoming Club Events HCAS Open House:
 April 1st @ 8:00pm
 May 6th @ 8:30pm
 June 3rd @ 8:30pm HCAS BOD Meeting:
 Thursday May 11th @ 6:30pm HCAS General Meeting:
 April 18th @ 7pm
 May 11th @ 7pm
 June 15th @ 7pm HCAS Members Only Night:
 Please consult the “Members Only “ page on the website for details. URGENT! We need volunteers for the Churchville Elementary School STEM Event. It will take place Friday, June 2nd from 9am to 3:30pm. More info to come. If you would like to help out, please contact club member Rick Fensch.
 Message from our President Bob Kesler 2016 was quite a year for astronomy in general. From the talk about gravitational waves to planet nine, if you like astronomy you had to like 2016. Then Rosetta was purposefully crashed into a Comet and Pluto keeps us spellbound with new information , discoveries and more questions. I think Pluto will regain its status as a planet some day soon, I hope so anyway. For HCAS we had a very good year hosting Open Houses and Events here in Harford County and even a few event in Cecil County. We had a great Star-B-Q and another great year of astronomy outreach for the people in Harford County. Thanks to all the members who contribute time and effort to make HCAS an awesome club and who make our events and meetings fun and informative. I look forward to 2017 as I think it will be even better with the eclipse in August! You all are an amazing group and I am very proud to be a member of HCAS. 
 [email protected] Recent New Members Please welcome the following new members:
 Brad Glass, Gerald Godwin, Jarick Cammarato, Thomas Miller, Roger & Linda Bennett, Rebecca & Joshua Gault, Patrick O’Laughlin,
 and Daniel Serovy www.harfordastro.org 2 2017 HCAS Newsletter 2017 Star Parties Green Bank Star Quest
 June 19-22 @ National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virgina
 http://www.greenbankstarquest.org Cherry Springs Star Party
 June 22-25 @ Cherry Springs State Park in Coudersport, PA
 http://www.astrohbg.org/CSSP/ Black Forest Star Party
 September 22-24 @ Cherry Springs State Park in Coudersport, PA
 http://bfsp.org/
 
 Total Solar Eclipse - August 21st
 The eclipse will occur directly over the country during daylight hours, and depending on weather should be highly visible from coast to coast.
 www.greatamericaneclipse.com Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Open House/ Aldebaran Occultation Larry Hubble I applaud members of the HCAS. Last night’s Open House was run by, if I’m not mistaken, four of our dedicated members. Due to my recent illness, my wife forbid be to go upstairs or outside in the cold. Therefore, I did the best I could to help speak to the two scout troops and guests, and tried to organize the groups as they went up to the dome where Tim was there to greet them. So kudos to Tim, Rob and Susan for braving the very cold and clear night. Susan and Rob looked like two Eskimos dressed in their cold weather gear! I am guessing we had over 100 guests. Thanks to Bob’s email, (I was not aware of the Aldebaran occultation), I looked outside and paired in the sky they were. A very pretty sight. So I did brave the cold for only a few minutes, 15 to set up and 10 to shoot the images at two different times. I did layer a couple of the Moon images to get the overall exposure correct across the Moon. From a film point of view, digital imaging is still cheating. The following image is a composite showing Aldebaran’s movement as it approaches the Moon. Famous Quote Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.
 ~ Arthur C. Clarke
 Quick Tip Observe away from buildings, pavement or large objects that absorb heat by day and release it at night. When these objects release heat at night, they create air currents (heat mirages) which degrade image quality in your telescope. This is why observing from a terrace or top of a building is not a good idea. The best locations are open, grass covered areas. www.harfordastro.org Canon 70D, EF 70-200 f/4L USM + 1.4x teleconverter @ 280mm, 1/320 sec; f/5.6; ISO 1250, a tripod image folks, no telescope. 3 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Photo of the Day Larry Hubble Big shout out to Larry for his work being chosen as the “Photo of the day” over at Imaging-Resource.com. You can click this link to view the photo on the webpage. About this photo. Last night (6/29/2016) a few of us met at Broad Creek Boy Scout Camp. Paul started the emails - I hope all got to see them. It was Paul, Cathy, Joe and myself. I know most can’t do a Wednesday night, but I am off and jumped at the chance. It was clear and cool, with low humidity. Maybe the best night I have seen at BC in June ever. The Milky Way was very easy from the Teapot to Cassiopeia. We saw deeper than the 6th magnitude stars in the Little Dipper - wow! Paul spent the night chasing down all kinds of Globular Clusters. Cathy and Paul said they wanted to stay away from Open House objects. I thought that was funny. Joe was having some issues with pointing accuracy, but kept a level head all night. Well you know what I was up to. I have only imaged through the new, not so new, refractor about 3 times including last night. I planned first at home with “The Sky” program to see if I could fit M8 the Lagoon nebula and M20 the Trifid in the same www.harfordastro.org field of view. It looked like I could using the 4” with the f5.25 flattener/reducer. Set up takes a while but was well worth it. This image is without Dark frames and Flats, just got tired and said “hell no”. Lucky I have a good field flattener and good noise reduction software. Now I wish I would have taken the darn darks and flats! I like to shoot using the Adobe RGB color space. I converted this to sRGB so to display the colors hopefully to other computer without too much color loss. It should appear reddish to reddish pink, it looks correct in Photoshop but some other viewers it may look a brownish red. I hope that it not what you are seeing when viewing. Image: William Optics 102mm APO refractor, Canon 70D w/CLS LP filter, W/O Reducer/flattener, 220s sub frames x11, ISO1000, @ f5.25 auto-guided PHD2 and QHY5L-II-M camera. 4 2017 HCAS Newsletter Testing the Mount Larry Hubble Friday night (Dec. 30th) was another attempt at autoguiding of the C14 or the AP Mount. In attendance were Tim P, Tim K, Paul S, and me. We ran into trouble right from the start with 2 Laptops not cooperating. We went to the old school method of using just the DSLR camera to image. That’s when we lost Tim K and Paul S. It was very cold, so it was ok to opt out. Tim P and I stuck it out, only because it has become a vendetta for us, and stayed until 11pm @ 29 degrees. Using PHD2 (Push Here Dummy) we could not get the mount to Calibrate using the Pulse Guide Method. Once we started to Calibrate the mount, the object would run out of the field of view in a hurry. After all we have been through, we know the settings are correct. Another issue was that we could not find focus using the Off-Axis guider because we need a 1.25” Diagonal. The club only has an SCT threaded diagonal. So the evening was a total bust! Not so fast! Using the new (old) focal reducer @ f/5.5 half of the native focal length of the C14, we were getting 2.5 – almost 3 minutes of UN-GUIDED images. That is because of the f5.5 www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar reducer. It cuts the magnification in half, lower power, wider field, better guiding. So I think we can be successful if we go back to using the ST4 guide port and use the Off-Axis guider and or the 80mm for guiding. I feel we should easily be able to obtain 5 to 6 minute sub frames. With the light pollution at HCC, that should be good enough to get some fairly decent images. Tim and I went ahead and figured WTH and took this image of the one and only Orion Nebula. Before you go Wow!, Orion is the brightest nebula, deep sky object in the northern hemisphere. It is the first target of any beginner Astrophotographer. I need you to look farther than the image. At f5.5 we almost got the entire Orion Nebula in the field of view. This new focal length will open up the entire cosmos to us for imaging. Planetary nebulas should be wonderful targets at 5minute sub frames. Star clusters, easy-peazy. I think one more trip up and we will be off and “Running Man”. That’s a pun, look it up! No swearing this time Bob, just an acronym! Photo by: Tim Phelan, Larry Hubble | Harford Observatory C14
 @ f5.5, Canon 70D, CLS filter, 2.5 minute subs x14, 2x shorter subs for center trapezium area. Processing: Images Plus and Photoshop, stacked using DSS. 5 2017 HCAS Newsletter Fountain Green Elementary School Science Fair Rick Fensch Fountain Green Elementary School asked our club last year if we would be willing to participate in their science fair. It was a fantastic night. The children bring in science related projects that they have been working on and get to present them to their classmates and parents. As a bonus, the kids rotate outside throughout the evening and get in some observing time on our telescopes. This year was no different, except for the weather. We had a beautiful night with clear skies and temps in the low 60’s. Compare that to last year when it was around 27 degrees! Club members Susan and Jason were able to make the night even better by bringing their own personal telescopes so the kids would be able to hop from scope to scope looking at different objects. The kids had a great time and were able to observe the Moon, Venus, Orion Nebula and a few other objects. It’s always great to hear them get excited and tell their parents what an awesome time they are having. We look forward to being invited again next year. Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Observing Sketches Gary George Roy was a fixture here with HCAS ever since I joined the club, Roy was the quiet one who sat in the corner and listened to what you had to say and when he was asked for his opinion, you got it, whether or not you liked it, he shot straight from the hip. Roy, as well as a few other members were very well versed with what’s overhead. I remember going up to Broad Creek on a Saturday evening and listening to him and other members just talking about galaxies and nebula and looking through the eyepiece of his scope and seeing absolutely nothing, then looking at Roy and saying “Ah Roy, there’s nothing in there, Oh Yes there is, it’s very faint, keep looking and it will pop out” If you ever had the chance to sit and talk with Roy, you came away learning something, Roy has had a lot of accomplishments while here with us, He received the “Newsletter of the Year” award while here, received his HCAS 40 pin, as well as several other awards too few to mention from the Astronomical League, most recently I was looking over some social media pages and had noticed several sketches of several nebula, galaxies, and really just said to myself very nice, and just kept scrolling through the different pages, just the other day I was looking once again and spotted another sketch, this time I read the brief article and was stunned by the fact that Roy did this. Not knowing any idea that he was such an accomplished sketch artist. So I send Roy a message and wound up emailing back and forth once again, this time I had ask if he would be willing to submit a sketch or two on over to the newsletter for publication and to inform all our new members just who Roy was while here. So since he and his wife Jean have moved to New Mexico, Roy has become quite an accomplished astronomer receiving the following awards from the Astronomical League: The Herschel 400 certificate, The Herschel II certificate, as well as the Basic & amp; Advanced Open Cluster Certificates, the Globular Cluster certificate, the Sketching and Observing certificate, and lastly the Arp Peculiar Galaxies Certificate. This past Sunday I got an email from Roy with several of his sketches attached, asking that I let everyone here at HCAS he said “Hello”, so please take some time and look at these and if you must, do some research and realize just what he has done. I know I’m floored by these. We miss him here at the observatory and hope that someday he will surprise us with a visit. Thanks Roy and wishing as always, clear skies!
 www.harfordastro.org 6 2017 HCAS Newsletter www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar 7 2017 HCAS Newsletter Moon Mosaic Rick Fensch Last October I purchased a fantastic program that works with Canon DSLR cameras. The program, BackYardEOS, has been around for many years and is now packed full of features. It has many great settings and controls that allow you to take full advantage of your imaging session. If you like shooting deep sky objects, you can set a long exposure and how many frames you would like to capture. Hit the capture button and just watch the system work for you. It also can help you obtain focus and even assist in drift aligning. Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar My favorite feature is the planetary imaging part. The program is able to take advantage of Canon cameras that can do 1080P video. It records the live feed as it comes in from the camera and save the videos as uncompressed AVI files. This is a game changer for shooting planets, the moon, or even the sun. It allows you to take your still camera and turn it into a high quality video imaging device. Why shoot videos? As most of you have noticed, the atmosphere we live under can distort the light coming from space. If you look at the moon under high power it doesn’t take long to notice that everything is wiggling around. You also may have heard that astrophotographers do not just take one image. They have to take many images and average all of them together in order to increase the quality. This is where video comes in handy. BackYardEOS will take around 30 pictures per second in the Planetary mode. I usually capture up to 1200 frames. Since the videos are saved as uncompressed AVI (extremely high quality) they can be processed in a free program called Registax. Registax can then look through the video at all of the frames you captured. It will find the best/ sharpest frames (the ones where the atmosphere calmed for an instant) and average them together to produce a much better final image. This “stacked” image can then be sharpened to give you a shot that looks wonderful. I wanted to try this technique out on the Moon. The tricky part is that the videos only show a small portion of the moon. To get a shot of the entire moon you have to take many videos, repointing the telescope at different locations on the moon, and then stitch all of the images together. It is very tedious, time consuming, and it produces an incredible amount of data. Make sure you have the hard drive space. My first go at this produced just over 40GB of video data. Yes, uncompressed video is high quality, but also leads to large file sizes. After painstakingly recording videos of all the sections of the moon I wound up with 15 videos that all needed processed in Registax. Repeating the same procedure and settings for each video in Registax I then had 15 tiff files that could be stitched together in Photoshop. After finishing stitching them, I was able to sharpen the image to produce the result you see here. The whole process from capture to final image was probably about 6 hours worth of work. Some may say that is crazy, but for me it was fun, a learning experience, and the reward is a great image of the moon that I can print poster size. If anyone would like more information about how I did this please shoot me an email at [email protected] Before and after comparison. Top image is original from Registax. Bottom images has been sharpened in Photoshop. www.harfordastro.org 8 2017 HCAS Newsletter www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar 9 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Gemini Wide Field Tim Phelan This image is a wide field of the region of Gemini around the stars Tejat and Propus close to the border of Orion. Shot with a Canon 60D and a 70-200mm f/4L lens, this image covers a 4.6°x6.3° rectangle of the sky. Featured in this image around Tejat and Propus is IC 443, known as the Jellyfish Nebula. IC 443 is a supernova remnant like the Veil and Crab nebulae and lies approximately 5,000 light years from Earth and spans a distance of about 70 light years! That’s crazy if you think about how the distance from the Sun to the nearest star Proxima Centauri is 4.25 ly. IC 443 is over 16 times as big as the distance to the closest star! Also featured in this image is the open cluster M35 which many of us love to view through our scopes. Messier 35 is a large and fairly dense cluster that spans an area of the sky almost as large as the full moon. The cluster is also visible to the naked eye under a dark sky so next time you go up to 
 Broad Creek in the winter or spring give it a shot. There are also a couple other emission nebulae in this image as well including NGC 2174 (surrounding open cluster NGC 2175) and IC 2162, both technically in Orion. I shot this image on 12/30/16 in Fawn Grove, PA. I used my 60D and a 70-200mm f/4L lens and an Astronomik CLS light pollution filter. I used 72, 120 second sub exposures and stacked them for a total of 2.4 hours of integration. The mount used was the iOptron SkyTracker which is a fantastic investment if you’re considering getting into night sky photography. Sub frames were stacked in Deep Sky Stacker and processed in Photoshop CC 2015. www.harfordastro.org 10 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Object of the Season Bode’s Galaxy (M81, NGC 3031) Messier 81 is the largest galaxy in the M81 Group, a group of 34 galaxies located in the constellation Ursa Major. At approximately 11.7 Mly (3.6 Mpc) from the Earth, it makes this group and the Local Group, containing the Milky Way, relative neighbors in the Virgo Supercluster. Gravitational interactions of M81 with M82 and NGC 3077 have stripped hydrogen gas away from all three galaxies, forming gaseous filamentary structures in the group. Moreover, these interactions have allowed interstellar gas to fall into the centers of M82 and NGC 3077, leading to vigorous star formation or starburst activity there.
 Observational Data: Apparent Size 24.9’ x 11.5’ Magnitude 6.9 Surface Brightness 13.2 Right Assenstion 9h 55m 33s Declination 69o 04' 02'' Redshift -0.0001 PixInsight. Sub-class Sb - Spiral Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) is a spiral galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. Due to its proximity to Earth, large size and active galactic nucleus (which harbors a 70 million M☉ supermassive black hole), Messier 81 has been studied extensively by professional astronomers. The galaxy's large size and relatively high brightness also make it a popular target for amateur astronomers. Distance 12 M Light years © Ken Crawford - Rancho Del Sol Observatory MPC G67. Image Exposure Details - Lum 480 minutes, Red 120 minutes, Green 120 minutes, Blue 120 minutes, Ha 5nm 180 minutes | Equipment RCOS 20" carbon truss - 100mm FFC, Paramount ME, Apogee Alta u16m, SBIG ST402 Guider, Astrodon MegaMoag, Astrodon 50mm Sq Filters, MaxDL 5, CCDAutopilot 4, CCDStack2, Photoshop CC & Messier 81 is located approximately 10° northwest of Alpha Ursae Majoris along with several other galaxies in the Messier 81 Group. Messier 81 and Messier 82 can both be viewed easily using binoculars and small telescopes. The two objects are generally not observable to the unaided eye, although highly experienced amateur astronomers may be able to see Messier 81 under exceptional observing conditions with a very dark sky. Telescopes with apertures of 8 inches (20 cm) or larger are needed to distinguish structures in the galaxy. www.harfordastro.org Interesting Info: First discovered by Johann Elert Bode on December 31, 1774. Ridentified by Pierre Méchain and Charles Messier in 1779. Identified in Messier Catalogue as M81. Visible in powerful Binoculars and small (4”, 101mm and smaller) telescopes. Has a companion galaxy, M82, often called the Cigar Galaxy. Can be photographed in some detail with small scopes. 11 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Here's a listing of the major planets along with rise, transit and set times for each month of the upcoming quarter. Your times include the start of each month, the middle of each month and finally the end of each month. For a more comprehensive listing and more complete detail please check out the U.S. Naval Observatory page at the following website address; http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/dataservices By Gary George April 1st Rise Transit Set April 15th Rise Transit Set April 30th Rise Transit Set Venus 05:50 12:15 18:40 Venus 05:00 11:11 17:22 Venus 04:24 10:32 16:40 Mars 08:17 15:19 22:21 Mars 07:50 15:02 22:15 Mars 07:27 14:48 22:09 Jupiter 19:53 1:39 07:21 Jupiter 18:49 00:38 06:22 Jupiter 17:41 23:28 05:18 Saturn 01:32 06:16 11:00 Saturn 00:36 05:21 10:05 Saturn 23:31 04:20 09:04 Rise Transit Set May 15th Rise Transit Set May 31st Rise Transit Set Venus 04:22 10:30 16:38 Venus 03:58 10:12 16:26 Venus 03:35 10:02 16:30 Mars 07:25 14:47 22:08 Mars 07:05 1432 22:00 Mars 06:46 14:16 21:47 Jupiter 17:37 23:23 05:14 Jupiter 16:36 22:24 04:16 Jupiter 15:29 21:18 03:11 Saturn 23:27 04:16 09:00 Saturn 22:29 03:18 08:02 Saturn 21:22 02:11 06:55 Rise Transit Set June 15th Rise Transit Set June 30th Rise Transit Set Venus 03:33 10:02 16:31 Venus 03:17 10:00 16:44 Venus 03:05 10:04 17:04 Mars 06:45 14:15 21:46 Mars 06:30 14:01 21:31 Mars 06:18 13:44 21:11 Jupiter 15:25 21:14 03:07 Jupiter 14:30 20:19 02:11 Jupiter 13:34 19:22 01:13 Saturn 21:18 02:06 06:51 Saturn 20:01 00:20 05:35 Saturn 19:14 00:03 04:48 May 1st June 1st April 1st Moon and Aldebara are in conjunction @ 4:53 am April 2nd Libration on the Moon Longitude 3.2 deg E. Favorable to the SW showing the NE April 6th Saturn is stationary @ 12/11 am and will then start it’s retrograde motion April 7th Jupiter has reached it’s maximum brightness @ 9:53 pm April 8th Jupiter is at Opposition @ 7:38 am and at it’s best visibility of the year April 10th Jupiter will appear adjacent to the moon just after sunset www.harfordastro.org 12 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Sky at a Glance www.harfordastro.org 13 2017 HCAS Newsletter www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar 14 2017 HCAS Newsletter www.harfordastro.org Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar 15 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Deep Sky Stacker by Rick Fensch What is stacking and why do astrophotographers use it? Short answer is, it makes your images better. But let me expand on that. For many years astronomers took advantage of glass plate photography to image the stars. A thin plate of glass would be coated with a light-sensitive emulsion of silver salts, allowing the glass to have an image “burned” into the plate. Astronomers would put these plates into cameras on the back end of their telescopes. After exposure and development, you would be able to see an image in the glass. A curator inspects a plate of the Small Magellanic Cloud taken on a 24in glass plate It did not take long for astronomers to develop a simple technique to discover fainter objects. An astronomer would expose a plate to an area of study, and then expose another plate to the same area. They would then be able to place each plate on top of one another and the two exposures would quickly display fainter stars. The exposures would basically add themselves together. By adding a second plate of the same area, a faint star would now appear twice as dark. It is quite simple, but a very powerful way of photographing faint objects. Today, stacking for amateur photographers is done digitally. Deep Sky Stacker is one of the most commonly used applications for digitally stacking multiple images of the night sky. However, most people get confused with how digital stacking is a little different than glass plate stacking. When stacking physical glass plates, you are adding together all of the exposures, which increases your overall signal. Deep Sky Stacker does not do this. The stack method is not addition, but www.harfordastro.org rather various versions of average. If you were to give Deep Sky Stacker 10 - one minute images, the resulting image would not look like a 10 minute exposure. It would still look like a one minute exposure. The only difference is in the signal to noise ratio has improved. Ok, don’t panic here. This can be a complicated subject, but I will keep things simple. Albert Einstein famously said “If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.” With every digital imaging device there exists noise. Noise is not our enemy, but rather an annoying friend that we have to learn how to deal with. The way a digital camera works is by counting photons. Plain and simple, it just counts photons. When a photon strikes your camera sensor, an electron is generated and held at that photodiode site until the end of the exposure. (A photodiode is a semiconductor device that converts light into current.) At the end of the exposure all of the photodiodes send their charge down the sensors rows to be counted and then saved as a digital number. Now, the photodiode does it’s very best to only count photons, but it makes mistakes. The photodiode itself has a tendency during the exposure to randomly create electrons. This tendency is completely random from image to image and is what leads to a large amount of noise that we have to deal with. There are other ways noise makes its way into our photos. For a comprehensive overview of digital camera noise, please read the articles by Craig Stark from 2009. Click here. For everyday photography here on Earth, this noise mostly goes un-noticed. When you are taking pictures under sunlight, the amount of real photons gathered greatly out numbers the amount of randomly generated electrons (noise). Poor image quality due to noise only becomes a problem when the real photon count begins to get low. When shooting in low light situations you begin to have real photon counts so low that the randomly generated noise count is easily seen in the photo. Modern digital cameras have improved so much over the last few years that even in normal low light conditions you will still have an image where noise is under control. However, us astrophotographers are trying to image targets with such low photon counts that you can not even see object! This gives us images with very low signal to noise ratios. So noise is something we need to learn about and figure out how to deal with. And this is where Deep Sky Stacker comes in to the mix. 16 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Deep Sky Stacker (DSS) is a free program that many astrophotographers use to process there multiple exposures. The program offers many features for beginners and the experienced imager. I plan to give a light overview that will help any beginner get started processing deep sky images. There are also many videos on YouTube that can elaborate on what is covered here. To do a proper imaging session there are 4 groups of photos that need to be acquired. They are commonly referred to as, Lights, Darks, Flats, and Bias frames. Everyone is familiar with Light frames. These are the actual pictures of the target that you captured, just like the glass plates. If you want to be quick, you can get away with great results by only capturing light frames. However, if you can capture the other three types of photos, your final image will be even better. It’s best to start with organization. Plan to capture these sets of images and place them into a folder for your target. You are also going to want to name each of these images with the corresponding lights, darks, flats, or bias in the file name. A dark frame is the same as the light frame, only you have covered your telescope or lens with a cap. This blocks all light from reaching the sensor. You keep the same settings that you had for your light frames. If you were shooting 30 seconds exposures, then you simply place the cap on your scope and continue taking 30 second exposures. The dark frames are what DSS uses to see what kind of random electrons (noise) your sensor has a tendency to create. Without getting technical, your BIAS frames will also do the same. But the BIAS frames are more focused on Read Noise. More about that here. For now, just know that bias frames should have the fastest exposure your camera is capable of. All other settings should still remain the same as the light frames. Flat frames are the cosmetic data that the program needs to remove vignetting or optical defects that are apparent in all optical systems. Flat frames can be tricky to capture. Your goal is to capture a neutral gray uniform image of a light source. Some people use a white t-shirt and stretch it evenly over their scope then point your scope at a bright light source. Others can get away with a tablet or laptop screen shining a solid grey and held over the scope. You need to keep all of your camera settings the same as the Light frames but adjust the exposure to produces a 50% overall brightness of the uniform image. If you do it right, your Flat frames should look similar to the image to the right. One last thing. Temperature is important and plays a role in how noise is generated. The hotter your sensor, the more random electrons it generates. This is why astronomy CCD cameras are cooled. So be sure, as best you can, to take all of your images in the same air temperature. www.harfordastro.org Here we have the Horsehead Nebula. Very faint. A single image clearly shows how the noise becomes abundant when the real photon count is low. However, after averaging 30 images of the nebula we can clearly see that the exposure is still the same, but the random noise has been greatly reduce. Resulting in a much higher signal to noise ratio. Example of a FLAT frame captured from a Canon 60D and a Canon 70-200 f2.8L lens. Vignetting is overwhelming at f/2.8. However after stacking, DSS corrects this because we calibrated with these FLAT frames. 17 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Above is a screen shot of DSS after all 4 groups of photos have been added to the list. Notice the exposure column. Darks and Lights have the same exposure. The BIAS have the fastest possible exposure. And the Flats have an exposure that gave a 50% brightness. In the upper right hand side you will also see a black and white bar with triangles underneath it. This is a quick preview adjustment area that allows you change your preview of the image. It can be helpful to use if you have trouble seeing your image. You can use the links on the top left to add all of your images to the list or you can drag and drop in each set. Once all of your files are in the list you want to make sure only the Light frames are check marked. Then proceed by clicking on the “register checked pictures…” link. You’ll want to make sure the “Automatic detection of hot pixels” is checked but you will have to experiment with the “Star detection threshold.” It will be a different value for each image you capture. You do not need to find thousands of stars. Just enough for the program to align each image base on that star pattern. That is the main purpose for this step. Once you have the threshold set to where you achieve a good amount of stars in the count, you can click ok and wait for the program to compute all of your Light frames. www.harfordastro.org 18 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar When finished you will be able to see extra data completed in your list of Light frames. DSS will give each photo a quality score so you can determine which are your best and worst photos within the stack. The higher the score the better the quality. This will allow you to make the decision if some photos need removed because of poor tracking or clouds. If most of your images have the same score, but a few have a much lower score, click on those images to preview them. You’ll be able to see that either clouds came into the frame or you had poor tracking, possibly from high wind. Remove them, if you do not want to add bad data to the stack. Whenever you are satisfied with your stack list, make sure you now check mark ALL of the images. Then you can click the “Stack checked pictures…” link and you’ll be greeted with the stacking steps dialog box. There are many options within this section and DSS is smart enough to offer recommendations based on the data that you have in the list. So to get started you could just use the recommended settings. However, I usually click the stacking parameters button to change settings. The first tab has a section that controls what parts of data will be stacked from each of the light frames. If you have perfect tracking you can do standard mode. However, if your target drifts from the first to last photo I would suggest you use Intersection Mode. Only the area that is seen across all of your light frames will be stacked. 2x Drizzle will improve resolution but comes at a cost of using A LOT of computer RAM. You may only be able to use this if you have more than 8 GB of ram. With a DSLR camera you should not have to check the “Align RGB Channels in final image.” Finally, it’s best to check the “Use all available processors for DSS to take full advantage of your computers CPU. For beginners, the next 4 tabs will produce great results if you check the average or median stack modes. Median is more favorable to correct slight tracking errors where some of your photos have elongated stars. Average will produce slightly better signal to noise ratios but will not correct elongated stars. The Sigma clipping modes are good to use when your images have airplanes and satellites moving through them. Those pixels with airplane lights will be too far from the average and thus not added to the stack. www.harfordastro.org 19 2017 HCAS Newsletter The alignment tab is best left on Automatic. Hovering your mouse over the others will allow you to read how they differ. In most cases automatic will work fine. Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar I personally do not create intermediate files. If you check these DSS will create and save many more files that can be used for reference. You can use these files to locate where dead photodiode sites are on your camera sensor. I save my final image as a TIFF file. More photo editing programs are able to work with TIFF files. FITS files require astronomy editing software such as PixInsight. The cosmetic tab is where you can alter settings for removing hot and cold pixels. For the most part, you should be good if you keep this tab set near these parameters. Again, I do not save an image showing the cleaned pixels for each light frame unless I was interested in that data. www.harfordastro.org Output tab deals with where your 32bit TIFF file will be saved. Make sure you check “Create an output file” and check the “Append a number to avoid file overwrite”. There are times where you will stack the same data with different settings a few times. Checking this box will make sure you do not over write your previous stack. I also create my output file in the same folder as all of the light frames. But you can choose otherwise. 20 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Once you finalize your stack parameters you will be shown an overview again. Sometimes its good to write these down so you can learn which settings work better for each type of image you process. Depending on your computer, stacking can take some time to complete. The more data you have in the list the longer it will take to process. So do not be alarmed if it takes more than 10-15 minutes. I suggest stacking only 5 frames of each file to start. It will stack fast so that you can preview and decide if you want different settings. When finished the program will change modes. The list mode closes and you will now see editing controls. You will also have a 32bit Autosaved file on your hard drive! If you have software like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, you may now begin editing the 32bit autosave file in those programs. Congratulations! You’ve completed your first stack! Now, you could stop here. You now have a photo of your target that has better signal and lower noise than a single image. However, like most photos, it could probably look a little better. DSS has very limited editing capabilities, but the controls are enough if you do not have access to other photo editing programs. Quick tip: Write down your stack settings as viewed on the stacking steps overview window. It will better help you remember which combinations work better for each type of image you process. Below is what you are presented with after stacking is completed. There are 3 editing tabs. RGB/K Levels, Luminance, and Saturation. Hopefully saturation is self explanatory for you. I find myself putting saturation around +20 in most cases. Color corrections can be made under the RGB/K Levels tab. Usually the endpoints can stay where they start. If the sky background has a color cast to it, try moving the midpoint triangles in small increments. I like selecting the point and then using my keyboard arrow keys to slowly adjust the point left and right. If color is still too hard to correct you may need to stack again after selecting “Use Auto White Balance” or “Use Camera White Balance” under the RAW/ FITS Settings… link. If the photo is too bright like the one in the screen shot, simply click the Linked settings box under the RGB/K Levels tab and move the midpoints left, until the bulk of the histogram preview is close to where the tone curve line is steepest. Once your exposure looks decent you can make some final changes under the Luminance tab. As you adjust the sliders you will be able to see the tone curve line change shape. When you hit Apply you will be able to see the updated image with those adjustments. When you are happy with your image you can save it with the Save picture to file… link. Be sure, however, to check the “Apply adjustments to the save image”. I hope this helps you find your way to stacking your first Deep Sky Image. As always, please send any questions you may have to [email protected] www.harfordastro.org 21 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar By Rob Bayne Selk’bag 5K Original (Black) This is one that tends to be overlooked by many amateur astronomers: COLD WEATHER GEAR! We do not get to hibernate in the winter, and why would we want to? The winter skies are full of wonders for us to see, and the season tends to be far more clear than the summer, at least here on the East Coast. That being said, if you want to brave the winter elements, look no further than the Selk’bag 5K Original. The Selk’bag is an interesting concept. It is a mix between a snow suit and a sleeping bag. Perfect for sealing in the warmth. The 5K Original comes with a number of nice features. Removable “booties” at the end of the legs let you wear normal shoes or boots without risking the bottom of your Selk’bag. There are leg vents to allow additional airflow, and the ends of the arms fold back to Velcro™ stays so that you can use your hands. There is also a kangaroo pocket on the front of the bag to allow to store any number of things, like filters or eyepieces. The pocket is actually angled deeply enough to be useful, unlike the kangaroo pockets of many hooded sweatshirts. The bag is easy to get in and out of, much like a pair of coveralls or a jumpsuit. No assistance is required. You can either remove the “booties” once you are in the bag or before you even put it on. It is quite comfortable to move around in, www.harfordastro.org and actually has enough padding to allow for comfortable sleep as well. While not exactly skin-tight, I did feel that I was able to maneuver without risking my scope or any of my other gear. The 5K Original is rated for 37° F; but that rating is with no additional clothing. If you are wearing typical winter gear, or even a medium weight jacket, you should be plenty toasty. My personal experience was that with only a t-shirt and jeans in temperatures right around the 37° F mark, and I needed to use the incorporated leg vents and unzip the top to maintain a comfortable temperature. The one thing to be aware of with the 5K is the sizing. There are multiple versions of the sizing chart floating around depending on the retailer from which you purchase the Selk’bag. I would recommend using the sizing chart and then ordering one size up. As an example, I am a Large based on my height, but the XL is a much more comfortable fit. Your mileage may vary. All in all, I think this would be an excellent purchase for any of those observing on the chilly winter nights. It is definitely a better solution than stuffing your clothes full of hand warmers! It is somewhat pricey at $169.99, but you will often find this model on sale at other retailers. Keep an eye out for a sale and grab it up. 22 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar By Rob Bayne The Day We Found The Universe The Day We Found the Universe is an in-depth account of how we reached our current understanding of the cosmos. On January 1, 1925, at the annual conference for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a paper modestly titled “Cepheids in Spiral Nebulae” was presented to an audience of anxious astronomers. The paper, authored by Edwin Hubble, was not presented by the now world-renowned astronomer but by a colleague, Henry Norris Russel. It was believed that Hubble did not attend the conference because he still believed his findings may have been incorrect. This is an excellent reflection on Hubble’s personality and similar insight is provided for all the astronomers in this account. ever initiated by a single person. The work of Edwin Hubble was, in reality, the work of dozens of astronomers over decades of intensive research, analysis, and technological advancement. Yet through all of this, there is still a sense of fun. The reader truly feels as though they know these great astronomers and that they are actually sharing the joy of discovery. The audiobook format is also quite well read and portrays the author’s enthusiasm for the subject matter. This book is an excellent choice for any lover of history, astronomy, or both. After the introduction, the book steps back in time to the late 19th century, to build the foundations of the incredible discovery that altered our perception of the universe. The reader is treated to historically accurate accounts of the lives and fundamental work of many astronomers, some well-known, other not. The reader will also learn about the equipment and techniques used by these great men and women to pave the path to Hubble’s great discover. From James Keeler, to Vesto Slipher, to “Pickering’s Harem”, all contributed to Hubble “Kill[ing] [Harlow Shapley’s] universe.” Hubble may have shrunk the Milky Way, but his discovery broadened the rest of the cosmos. The work itself is very well paced easy to read. One can feel the love the author has for both the history and the science detailed in the book. It also points out a key failing to most historical accounts: almost no change is www.harfordastro.org 23 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar From One Astronomer to Another Q & A By Susan Williamson Gary George. Q. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? A. First you need to change that to 7 individuals, all whom have passed, first would be my parents, my grandparents, my in-laws, and finally my fifth great grandfather, because it was his parents who came to America from Ireland. Q. Do you collect anything and if so, what? A. No nothing anymore, just memories of my children and grandchildren. Q. Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? A. am going to have to say it's a tie between “smell and taste" because the other three aren't as good as they use to be. Q. Other than astronomy, in the evening would you rather play a game, visit a friend/ relative, watch a movie or read? A. Eyesight Q. Other than astronomy, in the evening would you rather play a game, visit a friend\relative, watch a movie or read? A. Visit a friend or relative Q. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? A. The power to levitate bad drivers and their cars immediately off the road directly onto an adjacent pasture or field. Rick Fensch Q. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? A. Only 4! So hard! Personally, I think it would be great to sit down with Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Charles Darwin. I would just like to thank them each for changing our world. Q. Do you collect anything and if so, what do you collect? A. Depends if anyone is over, if I'm alone I would prefer to sit, put my earbuds in and listen to music, be it jazz or metal, preferably progressive metal. A. I really don't collect anything. The closest I would come to collecting something would be space and time travel movies. I like any movie that deals with traveling through space or time. Q. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? Q. Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? A. I’m a "super hero" to all my grandkids, and I have all powers to fix anything for them, but in reality, let the superhero's have the powers, I'll just sit back and watch
 A. My sight is strongest. Probably why I am a photographer. Bob Kesler Q. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? A. I started out thinking John Kennedy, Ike, Robert E Lee, Ronald Regan, Donald Trump, Amelia Earhart… But, I ended up with family I so much miss… Mr. Gene Kesler, Mrs. Clarinda Kesler, my Aunt Mary Dan, my Uncle Hap, and my Uncle Pete. Q. Other than astronomy, in the evening would you rather play a game, visit a friend\relative, watch a movie or read? A. I’m a late night movie watcher for sure. I wish I could sit and read, but I'm always too exhausted by the time I get my 3yr old to bed. Q. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? A. I love Superman! So I would have what he has. I'd just go around saving and helping people all the time. Do you collect anything and if so, what do you collect? A. I’m not really a collector. Q. Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? www.harfordastro.org 24 2017 HCAS Newsletter Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar Tim Kamel Susan Williamson Q. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? Q. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? A. I would love to talk with Einstein, maybe he can better explain general and special relativity. I would love to talk H. Beam Piper, a favorite author of mine who killed himself just as his writing career was taking off, to convince him not to do it. Neil Armstrong to talk about his piloting skills. And, of course, Rachael Ray, to cook the meal. A. My Father George Rozinak (died when I was 11) 2. Carl Sagan 3. Mark Twain 4. Linda Ronstadt Q. Do you collect anything and if so, what do you collect? A. I collect everything astronomical - telescopes, eye pieces, magazines, books, accessories, you name it. OCD. Q. Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? Q. Do you collect anything and if so, what do you collect? A. Cookbooks Q. Which of the 5 senses would you say is your strongest? A. My vision but my hearing is good too. Q. Other than astronomy, in the evening would you rather play a game, visit a friend\relative, watch a movie or read? A. Eye sight is still the best. A. Love good movies, surround sound, dark room and Blu Ray, need the works to totally enjoy! Q. Other than astronomy, in the evening would you rather play a game, visit a friend\relative, watch a movie or read? Q. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? A. Reading wins. Mostly books but also magazines. Anything in large type. I would be able to fly and I would like healing powers like John Coffey in The Green Mile Q. If you were a super hero, what powers would you have? A. As Super Captain Old Man, my powers would be spider veins, crow’s feet, bat wings, liver spots and flaring hips. About this Newsletter • Articles for the newsletter are due to the editor before the end of the quarter for consideration to be published in the upcoming issue. • Articles received after the deadline will be published in the following quarterly edition. • When submitting and article please be sure to include a write up about your experience capturing the image or participating in the event. • All pictures are copyrighted by the person who has taken the photo. Any duplication of the pictures will need permission from the copyright holder. Please contact the editor and your request will be forwarded to the photographer. Permission is not necessary for non-profit use of this material, although proper acknowledgement is required. Please send all contributions or article questions to the editor at: [email protected] • Email address changes should be brought to the attention of the editor at the address given above. • Complaints concerning any content of this newsletter should be brought the attention of the editor promptly. www.harfordastro.org 25 2017 HCAS Newsletter HCAS Mission Statement HCAS is a group of people from varied backgrounds of all ages, both men and women with a common bond, the love of astronomy. HCAS is associated with the Harford County Community College (HCC) and has the exclusive use of the College Observatory and associated meeting rooms. HCAS members are friendly and we welcome anyone with an interest of astronomy to join our ranks. A beginner or advanced observer and or an astro-photographer. HCAS is committed to the people of Harford County to assist and augment learning and interest in astronomy, as well as providing strong, all volunteer outreach programs to schools, clubs, and other interested organizations. Vol. 44 Issue 1 - Jan-Mar HCAS BOD Members Executive Committee: Robert (Bob) Kesler - President Vacant - Vice President Tim Kamel - Treasurer Rick Fensch - Secretary Sitting Members of the Board: Tom Rusek Larry Hubble HCAS Goals • Promote the interest and love of astronomy for the people of Harford County, Maryland • Advocate for dark skies and fight light pollution and light trespass. • Engage with schools, churches, scouts and other organizations to expand knowledge and interest in astronomy. • Establish and maintain an atmosphere at the observatory where everyone is included and invited to join and share in astronomy by visual observing as well as astro-photography, regardless of skill level or education. http://astroleague.org www.harfordastro.org Mike Talbard Dave Jayroe Tim Phelan Technical Advisor to the BOD: 
 (Lifetime Standing) Mark Kregel Astronomical League | Night Sky Network coordinator: Colleen Gerlach http://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov 26