Astrophotography and The Digital Revolution

Astrophotography
and the
Digital Revolution
Humberside BCS Branch

Wednesday 13th February 2013
Astrophotography is concerned with
imaging celestial objects for science or
pleasure
Originally the domain of professionals –

Cameras used film or glass plates coated with
photosensitive chemicals
The digital revolution and the affordable

availability of technology has opened this field
to amateurs
First, some basics
Why can we ‘see’ astronomical objects ?
They either radiate or reflect energy at

visible wavelengths
We can ‘capture’ some of this energy by focusing it

with lenses onto a suitable detector .
(e.g. eye, photographic emulsion, ccd)
How light travels from object to detector
Object
radiates
light
Lenses focus light onto detector

Advantages of cameras over eyes
Accurate positional information
Ability to capture images of very faint objects
Ability to capture images beyond visible spectrum
Ability to capture images at discrete wavelengths

Early images
Henry Draper c. 1870
Created the HD Catalogue
Centre of the
Orion Nebula
Orion Nebula – A. A. Common 1883
First use of long exposure to show details invisible to
the eye
Planetary images
Lowell 1966 Horace Dall 1956
1970’s Horace Dall 1976

Key issues in Astrophotography
Accurate pointing of telescope – finding objects
Diurnal motion – tracking objects
Mechanical inaccuracies – Periodic Error
Camera / film sensitivity to light – exposure times
‘Seeing’ – the effects of atmospheric turbulence
Noise reduction – the removal of unwanted artefacts

The digital revolution solution
Hardware:
Computers – connect and control
Digital Stepper Motors – physically move the telescope
Digital Encoders – feed back the telescope position
CCD Cameras – turn incident photons into electrical impulses

Software:
Planetarium – planning images, control of telescope
• Stellarium, Cartes du Ciel, Autostar...
Guide – uses ‘guide’ camera to remove effects of mount errors
• Metaguide, PHD, Guide Dog...
Capture – controls all camera functions, outputs digital data

• Maxim DL, Backyard EOS, Nebulosity, CCDcap
ASCOM interface – connects software and hardware

• Industry standard drivers for windows
Processing Software – digital manipulation of camera data

How it all connects...
Guide camera
Guide-scope
Imaging telescope
Imaging camera Encoders

Stepper
motors
Mount
Guiding ASCOM
Capture
software control
software
software
Planetarium
Computer software
Typical amateur back-
garden set up.
Planning an image
Longer focal length - higher magnification - smaller field of view
FOV/degrees = 57.3 x chip size/mm

focal length/mm
Rod Wodaski’s CCD Calculator
http://www.newastro.com/book_new/camera_app.php
Exposure times
Moon, bright planets : 1/200 sec to 1/8 sec
Constellations : 25 – 45 secs
Bright DSOs : 1 min – 10 min...use 30sec to 3 min subs
Faint DSOs : 1 hour and longer...use 3 to 10 min subs
Long total exposures are obtained by ‘stacking’ a suitable

number of shorter exposures using processing software
Image processing…
Just about every astronomical image, from Hubble down, has
been digitally processed in some way
Advantages…
- stack multiple images to get long exposure

times and a higher signal/noise ratio
- Combine images from different telescopes/cameras/filters
- Remove uneven illumination/sky background
- Fine tune brightness/contrast/colour balance
Disadvantages:
- Can be very time consuming !!
Imaging the moon and planets
Capturing detail requires high magnification

High magnifications are affected by ‘seeing’
Solution...use webcam or video
This method quickly captures thousands of

images, which can be stacked and processed
with e.g. Registax
Imaging Jupiter
Horace Dall 1956 IPP Lowell Telescope 1972

CCD webcam footage 2011
Comparing results
Deep Sky Objects – Nebulae and Galaxies
Faint objects require longer exposures for detail
Longer exposures require very accurate tracking and produce

more ‘noise’ from the camera
Solutions....
Use auto-guiding system to maintain tracking accuracy allowing
long exposures to be made
Use processing software to remove noise and ‘stack’ frames

M45 – Hale Telescope 1970’s
DSLR image – 2011
Dust on
lens or
chip
Thermal
noise
RAW frame : EOS 300D : ISO 800 : 6 mins

Dark frame : EOS 300D : ISO 800 : 6 mins – contrast stretched
Flat frame : EOS 300D : ISO 100 : 2.5 secs
Stack of 8 x 6 mins – contrast stretched & colour balanced
Deep Sky Imaging...DSLR comparisons
Hale Telescope 1970’s

Hale Telescope 1970’s
M42 UK STU 1970’s
Astro-CCD Deep Sky Imaging
Astro-CCD cameras are designed to have a high sensitivity and
dynamic range
Mono cameras can be used unfiltered for ‘luminance’ frames or with

sets of either RGB or ‘narrowband’ filters to capture ‘colour’
information
Hubble images use a narrowband ‘pallette’ of :

SII – red Ha – green OIII – blue
Used primarily to emphasise detail in emission nebulae
Very time consuming – 3 or more sets of images plus flats and darks
Using narrowband and RGB data together
RGB frames taken with EOS 300D
Narrowband frames taken with Celestron Starshoot

mono CCD
Filters used : Ha and OIII
Images processed and aligned using IRIS
Aligned images combined and colour balanced in CS3

RGB with DSLR H-alpha data
Stacks using original RGB and

narrowband data
OIII data
Blue plus OIII Green plus OIII
RGB channels were separated,

then narrowband data was
selectively added to each
channel
Red plus Ha
Modified RGB channels
were recombined, then
the final image was
colour balanced and
cropped
Narrowband CCD Deep Sky Imaging...possibilities
A Hubble palette
image of the central
area of the Heart
Nebula...
Photo: Matt Beavers
An excellent example
of what can be
achieved with
inexpensive amateur
equipment from a back
garden in suburban
Hull
Planetarium software
Cartes du Ciel
http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/download.html
Stellarium
http://www.stellarium.org/
Heavens above – for satellites, ISS, Iridium flares

http://www.heavens-above.com/
Processing software
IRIS information tutorials and downloads
http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm
Deep Sky Stacker

http://deepskystacker.free.fr/english/index.html
Registax downloads
http://www.astronomie.be/registax/html/download.html
Registax tutorial
http://www.davesastro.co.uk/techniques/registax_tutorial/index.html
Virtualdub – reformat MPEG etc to AVI

http://www.virtualdub.org/download.html
The End

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How has astrophotography evolved over time?

How has astrophotography evolved over time?

What are some of the challenges of astrophotography?

What are some of the challenges of astrophotography?

Astrophotography

Humberside BCS Branch

Originally the domain of professionals –

The digital revolution and the affordable

They either radiate or reflect energy at

We can ‘capture’ some of this energy by focusing it

Lenses focus light onto detector

Accurate positional information

Ability to capture images of very faint objects

Ability to capture images beyond visible spectrum

Ability to capture images at discrete wavelengths

Lowell 1966 Horace Dall 1956

1970’s Horace Dall 1976

Accurate pointing of telescope – finding objects

Diurnal motion – tracking objects

Mechanical inaccuracies – Periodic Error

Camera / film sensitivity to light – exposure times

‘Seeing’ – the effects of atmospheric turbulence

Noise reduction – the removal of unwanted artefacts

Digital Stepper Motors – physically move the telescope

Digital Encoders – feed back the telescope position

CCD Cameras – turn incident photons into electrical impulses

Capture – controls all camera functions, outputs digital data

ASCOM interface – connects software and hardware

Processing Software – digital manipulation of camera data

Imaging camera Encoders

FOV/degrees = 57.3 x chip size/mm

Rod Wodaski’s CCD Calculator

Moon, bright planets : 1/200 sec to 1/8 sec

Bright DSOs : 1 min – 10 min...use 30sec to 3 min subs

Faint DSOs : 1 hour and longer...use 3 to 10 min subs

Long total exposures are obtained by ‘stacking’ a suitable

- stack multiple images to get long exposure

- Remove uneven illumination/sky background

- Fine tune brightness/contrast/colour balance

Capturing detail requires high magnification

This method quickly captures thousands of

Horace Dall 1956 IPP Lowell Telescope 1972

Longer exposures require very accurate tracking and produce

Use processing software to remove noise and ‘stack’ frames

RAW frame : EOS 300D : ISO 800 : 6 mins

Hale Telescope 1970’s

Mono cameras can be used unfiltered for ‘luminance’ frames or with

Hubble images use a narrowband ‘pallette’ of :

Used primarily to emphasise detail in emission nebulae

Narrowband frames taken with Celestron Starshoot

Filters used : Ha and OIII

Images processed and aligned using IRIS

Aligned images combined and colour balanced in CS3

Stacks using original RGB and

RGB channels were separated,

Heavens above – for satellites, ISS, Iridium flares

Deep Sky Stacker

Virtualdub – reformat MPEG etc to AVI