After around an evening’s work, I have managed to process my first image with the new system and software. There was a lot to learn, and I have only just scratched the surface, so expect my images to improve dramatically in the future.
The above shot is of a group of galaxies that reside in Leo at a distance of approximately 35 Million Light Years.
Processing the image wasn’t all smooth sailing…
After the initial calibration and stacking I took a quick look at the luminance data:
Uh oh – that’s not good…
If you look carefully, you can see the dust motes in the system have affected the image. When I was on Exmoor, I was running out of time so didn’t take any flat exposures to mitigate this. I theorised, that I could use some flats that I took relatively recently.
However, when I got home, to my horror I had discovered that I had deleted those!
Time to engage brain…
How to create the required flats data?
Well, here is the solution I came up with:
Desperate times require desperate measures! š
Not the most elegant solution, but I found that by setting my computer’s TV to display just white, I could simulate a the dawn sky, with the aid of a T-Shirt and a rubber band!
The result was a set of flats for each filter that I used. Here is the luminance one:
The synthetic flat that I managed to generate with the above setup.
Luckily for me the dust motes had hardly moved on the drive back, which meant that there was a real possibility that this would work!
Fixed! Mostly…
Above is the same image data, but now calibrated against the artificial flats that I had created. The result is a much improved image – who said TV’s are bad for you? š
Next, I need to get a proper image gallery up and running so that I can keep all the images in one place. After all, most readers want to see images, not listen to my waffle!
I will also spend some time learning about noise reduction and synthetic luminance creation. I’m pretty sure I can squeeze even more information out of the data that I have collected!
Anyway, I think you will agree, that this is quite an auspicious start š
Clear Skies
RobP
Uk Astro-Imager 