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Re: Station 3 undergoing final testing
Myron, Couldn't FTP the FITs.? Looks promising though.? Think I caught the Owl Nebula too very nicely and a bunch of smaller nebulae and galaxies. I'd like to process the FITs here if you can find a way for me to get to them please. Thank you! Pete On Sun, May 4, 2025 at 10:53?PM Peter Laky via <canygevamotx=[email protected]> wrote:
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Re: Station 3 undergoing final testing
Thanks for your help Myron!?? Pete On Sun, May 4, 2025 at 10:23?PM Myron Wasiuta via <myrnteryx4=[email protected]> wrote: Dear RAC, |
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Station 3 undergoing final testing
Dear RAC,
Tonight RAC VP Pete Laky performed a final shakedown test session with our new Station 3 telescope. In these pictures his test target is the galaxy M108 and the telescope can be seen in nearly its final configuration. If all goes well tonight- the next step is to see if it fits in the old Station 3 enclosure. It¡¯s going to be close but I¡¯m hopeful! Once it¡¯s in the enclosure, final testing and polar aligning will need to be done. But hopefully that will go well and if so RAC will have 2 fully operational telescopes for member use! Myron |
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Merged Images
I¡¯ve been working with Myron Wasiuta and Pete Laky to test the new Station 3 telescope and color camera at the Mark Slade Remote Observatory. They have been doing all the hard work, and I have been doing processing at my home in Crozet, VA. ? Although the Station 3 scope/color camera (510mm StellarVue SVX 102T-Raptor with ASI 2600MC duo camera), is not fully operational, the results so far are stunning! ? At my request for comparison and merging purposes, some of the Station3 test images were collected over DSO targets that I imaged last year at 560mm from my patio here in Crozet. I am using a Canon 7D mark II camera body with a Canon 100-400mm II zoom lens at 400mm plus a Kenko 1.4x teleconverter to yield a 560mm, f/8.0 system. I have this camera mounted on a StarAdventurer tracker. Even with good polar alignment, errors in alignment and tracker motor, without any auto-guiding, limit my exposures from 30 to 60 seconds, with ISO ranging from 1600 to 6400. I still need to correct minor star trailing in each image prior to stacking. I try to collect at least 45 to 60 minutes of integrated time. ? Because I need to dig deep into the dark end of the histogram of the Canon stack of sub-images to pull out faint DSO detail, bright stars tend to be bloated. By comparison, 5 minute guided exposures using the Station 3 scope are sharp as a tack, and a one hour stack looks great. What I did find is that the colors, especially in the blue wavelengths, are a bit better with the Canon 7DII sensor than the Sony imx 751 chip in the Station 3 camera. Of course, sky transparency plays a big role in the results, especially in the blue wavelengths. ? By re-sizing and rotating the images, I could process and merge images from both the Canon equipment and the MSRO Station 3 equipment, and then do additional processing on the merged image. The ¡°soft¡± Canon image details in outer galaxy arms smoothed out some of the noise in the Station 3 images, and the combined colors are better than either image alone. ? Here are a couple of examples. I eagerly await the Station 3 scope being fully operational when 2, 3, and even 4 hours of sub-images can be collected. ? M81/M82 ? ? M106 ? ? |
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Re: Hello from a new member
Myron,?
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I¡¯ll look forward to the training! I¡¯m super curious how similar the programs will be to Kstars/Ekos that I¡¯m familiar with. I¡¯ll have availability Friday and Sunday. Saturday I¡¯m at another music event, but in Va this time.?
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WO GT81 20th anniversary edition SVB 50mm guide Mount, ES EXOS2 PMC8 ASI 533MC Pro/ASI 533MM Pro ASI 120 MM Mini ZWO EFW7 1.25¡± Pegasus Focus Cube? Stellarmate Pro 64gb, Kstars & Ekos Astro Pixel Processor, StarNet++, Affinity Photo |
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Re: Hello from a new member
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýBrian, I¡¯ll make sure I email you the proposed times for our training sessions. Looking forward to having you join in! How does this coming weekend sound for coming over to pick up the Exos -2 mount and parts? Myron On Apr 30, 2025, at 7:44?AM, Brian Barbre via groups.io <brianwbarbre@...> wrote:
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Re: Hello from a new member
Marshall,?
Nice to make your acquaintance and welcome.?
Myron,? I¡¯m on board for a digital training session. I would enjoy growing a bit away from just astrophotography and get into more EAA and science.
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Brian
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WO GT81 20th anniversary edition SVB 50mm guide Mount, ES EXOS2 PMC8 ASI 533MC Pro/ASI 533MM Pro ASI 120 MM Mini ZWO EFW7 1.25¡± Pegasus Focus Cube? Stellarmate Pro 64gb, Kstars & Ekos Astro Pixel Processor, StarNet++, Affinity Photo |
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Re: Hello from a new member
Marshall, Welcome to the Rappahannock Astronomy Club and thank you for the nice introduction. I hope you find our group rewarding personally as a place to exchange ideas and knowledge on astronomy and astrophotography. I have had the opportunity to get to know Marshall over the past few months as I have worked with him on acquiring images using the RAC/MSRO telescopes. Ill be working with him over the coming weeks and months providing training on the use of the telescopes. I would also welcome any other members of RAC who would like to learn how to operate the telescopes to email me. Perhaps we can have live Zoom sessions with several people learning at the same time. Ill send out invites and all are welcome to join in and watch and learn! Hope everyone has a great evening, Myron
On Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 01:09:09 PM EDT, Marshall Faintich via groups.io <mbf3258@...> wrote:
I'm a new member of this group, and just joined as I have been working with Myron Wasiuta, processing images captured at the Mark Slade Remote Observatory.
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I live in Crozet, VA and have been a member of the Charlottesville Astronomy Society since last fall. Got my Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1971, and spent most of my working career with earth imaging satellites, and was invited to serve on several NASA working groups involved with earth and solar system imaging satellites.
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Feel free to visit my web site:
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If you just want to visit my astronomy pages:
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BTW, for RAS members living in Fredericksburg: I lived there 1971-74 when the population was 13,000. Freddy'burg has changed quite a bit since then!
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Re: M51 Whirlpool galaxy
Mike,?
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Great image. Love the dust lane detail. Good to know the Esprit is 550. ?I¡¯m thinking of getting a scope that is in the 600-700mm focal range for galaxies (when funds allow).?
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WO GT81 20th anniversary edition SVB 50mm guide Mount, ES EXOS2 PMC8 ASI 533MC Pro/ASI 533MM Pro ASI 120 MM Mini ZWO EFW7 1.25¡± Pegasus Focus Cube? Stellarmate Pro 64gb, Kstars & Ekos Astro Pixel Processor, StarNet++, Affinity Photo |
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VCE flyers and livestream link. This is the concert at Mary Washington Collage. All the Astro pictures for the backdrop are from our club.
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Re: Constellation challenge
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý? Hi Michael, Ok so here is another set of constellation photos my daughter Autumn took as she was ending her night shift on the flight deck of the USS Nimitz. They were taken a couple weeks ago ?The first one is looking towards the northeast, the second almost due south, and the last one to the northwest. This last one has a constellation that should look very familiar to us here in Virginia ?Good luck! Myron On Apr 28, 2025, at 4:33?PM, Michael St. Vincent via groups.io <mike.st.vincent@...> wrote:
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Re: Station 3 & station 2
Hi Marshall, So glad you are happy with the heron results. I think it turned out well all things considered. Ill put your target requests into the target list and start working on those between our other projects. And hopefully we get station 3 up and running soon. I did a preliminary fit test into the roll off roof enclosure tonight and it just may fit! Ive been looking closely at the M95/96/105 image and have been targeting some of the faint PGC galaxies and nebulous objects with the 10" to see if they show any interesting detail. I found two in particular that are very interesting to me. One is a slightly greenish bilobal object on the Raptor image. The other looks like a very faint fuzzy triangle. I successfully imaged both of those and am including those images here. The one object seems to have a tail or nebulous extension . I dont know how much more detail I can expect but it might be worth a try with the BVR filters. In fact-I'm not even sure the little triangle is a group of stars or galaxies-or a combination of both. Id be curious what you and others in this email think. If it is a galaxy group-it would be nice to try and identify it. Myron
On Monday, April 28, 2025 at 04:00:13 PM EDT, marshall@... <marshall@...> wrote:
Hi Myron, I keep thinking about how great the Station 3 images look. Champing at the bit to use it more! And I really am pleased with the Heron Galaxy results. Have posted my final image on my three social media sites (of course, with credit to the MSRO). I know you are very busy with all the equipment, but I still want to learn how to remotely operate the scopes. In the meantime, and whenever you get a chance, I'd still like to get 60, one-minute subs for each BVR for M88, M90, and M91 with the 10" scope. They are well placed now and into early June. I may try to get M102/NGC5906 (Spindle/Splinter Galaxies) in a single 560mm frame from here in Crozet. They're not the most impressive looking galaxies, but I have never image either one before. When Alice and I moved here, Crozet was in the Bortle 4.0 to 4.5 range, but now it's in the 4.5 to 5.0 range. Thank you, Marshall -- * Marshall Faintich Crozet, VA www.faintich.net In real life, the shortest distance between two points is never a straight line, so you might as well enjoy the journey! * |
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Re: M51 Whirlpool galaxy
Thanks Myron. The Esprit 100 comes with a flattner. I use the stock setup (no reducer). I did crop some since M51 was a little small initially. I used BlurXterminator in correct only mode that helps a bit with the stars but doesn¡¯t make them look unnatural. My guiding was really good last night .25¡± and the autofocus kept the stars HWFM below 2 so I think most of my luck was with great seeing conditions.
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Mike Parker On Apr 28, 2025, at 2:43?PM, Myron Wasiuta via groups.io <myrnteryx4@...> wrote: |
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Re: M51 Whirlpool galaxy
?Mike- very nice !! Great color balance.
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Are you using a field flattener? Your stars look great. Myron On Apr 28, 2025, at 1:32?PM, Mike Parker <mike@...> wrote: |
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Re: Asteroid Harvard in MSRO S 3 image
¿ªÔÆÌåÓý? Michael, Sometimes the avi files don¡¯t open no matter what you do. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a setting on your end. I¡¯ll see if I can convert to an MP4 version and send that out.? Myron? On Apr 28, 2025, at 11:20?AM, Michael St. Vincent via groups.io <mike.st.vincent@...> wrote:
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Peter Laky
Myron Wasiuta
Brian Barbre
Mike Parker
