Exploring Night Sky » Astrophotography

Apr 17

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky 2 comments tags: Amit Kamble Photography, Astronomik, Astronomik 12nm Ha Filter, Astronomik CLS Filter, Astronomik filters comparison, Astronomik UHC Filter, astrophotography, comparison, Deep Sky

Astronomik filters comparison

I have been using the Astronomik CLS Filter for the last few years to get rid of light pollution in my astrophotos. The filter has done a really good job so far and have given me some good results, specially when doing deep sky astrophotography. I was planning on modifying my Canon 6D for astrophotography, so it is more sensetive to H-alpha. But before I could completely modify my camera, i wanted to give some other astronomik filters a try. Specially the UHC Filter and 12nm Ha Filter as these filters only allow narrow wavelengths (specially the 12nm Halpha.) Below is a comparison for the CLS and UHC transmission chart. As you can see from the above images, UHC filter has a narrow transmission and thus gets rid of any unwanted light (City Lights) The result of shooting through the UHC filter is that you get a better sky contrast hence the name UHC (Ultra High Contrast), The UHC works better on any kind of emission nebula: When a nebula is emitting light only at certain wavelengths, you may block everything else to get a very dark background with a high contrast: That´s the intention of the Astronomik UHC. I […]

Apr 16

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky, Tutorial 0 comments tags: Amit Kamble Photography, astrophotography, Deep Sky, ioptron, iOptron skyguider, LMC, photoshop, pixinsight tutorial, processing

LMC Processing – PixInsight Tutorial

I recently uploaded an image of LMC which is probably one of the best images i’ve processed so far. As i was processing the image, i decided to record the process, so i can upload that as a tutorial as in the past few people have asked about the processing. I used pixinsight for processing and photoshop for final touches. Keep a look around as i upload more videos. Here is a 11 part video series that shows the processing workflow.

Apr 14

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky 0 comments tags: Amit Kamble Photography, astrophotography, Deep Sky, LMC

Large Magellan Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud is the largest of all the dwarf satellite galaxies that orbit the Milky Way, it’s tiny in comparison with the Milky Way’s 200-plus billion stars – the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is thought to contain around 30 billion stars, Persian astronomer Abd Al-Rahman Al Sufi wrote about the ‘clouds’ over a thousand years ago, but it wasn’t until explorer Ferdinand Magellan travelled south and wrote about them in the 14th century that their existence became common knowledge – and it’s his name they bear. The Large Magellanic Cloud seems to orbit the Milky Way, bound by its gravity. In the distant future it may be torn apart and absorbed by our galaxy. The LMC is the third closest galaxy to the Milky Way and is thought to be about 160,000 light-years away. Without visual aids the Large Magellanic Cloud look like a roughly rectangular patch of light, but with decent binoculars or a small telescope you can see nebulae strewn through the LMC. The most outstanding of these is the Tarantula Nebula – the most active star-forming region in the 30-odd galaxies including the Milky Way that make up the Local Group. It’s named for its […]

Apr 03

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky, Tutorial 0 comments tags: Amit Kamble Photography, astrophotography, Deep Sky, photoshop, processing

M51 Processing – Photoshop

This is a short video of M51 processing. A friend of mine “Rahul Ramtekar” from Dhruva Skywatchers Association asked me to process this beautiful image of M51 galaxy shot from a Dobsonian telescope. I did not have DSS so this set of image was stacked in PixInsight, but any stacking software will do. The image was taken by Rahul Ramtekar of Dhruva Skywatchers Group – Nagpur, while observing through the 10″ Go-To Dob at Sillari, Pench with Pravin Jat. Canon EOS 60D + Skywatcher 10″ Synscan Dob Alt-Azimuth Tracked 20 images Stacked in DSS + Postprocessing in PS 29Sec, f/4.8, ISO 1600 19th March 2016, 4.20 AM, 21.3732455 N,78.7575318 E Telescope Credits: Observatory, Sillari Pench Tiger Reserve

Feb 22

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography, Deep Sky 0 comments tags: astrophotography, AT65EDQ, Deep Sky, Eta Carina, photoshop, processing, ZEQ25

The Carina Nebula: Star Birth in the Extreme

Carina Nebula is a region in the sky much brighter and larger (at least 4 times larger) than the famous Orion Nebula (M42), yet is not as famous. This is probably because of the location of the object which is circumpolar south of latitude 30°S, but is never visible north of latitude 30°N. It is a treat for people in the south and especially for astrophotographers. During the summer, we have Orion up in the sky and as the winter comes, it’s time for Carina to be up nice and high. This not so famous Carina Nebula is an extreme stellar nursery, a home to one of the youngest known star clusters (Trumpler 14), Trumpler 16 which is home to of WR 25, currently the most luminous star known in our Milky Way galaxy together with the less luminous but more massive and famous Eta Carinae star system, and HD 93129A (another luminous star). The nebula lies at an estimated distance between 6,500 and 10,000 light years from Earth. It appears in the constellation of Carina, and is located in the Carina–Sagittarius Arm. I Bought a new AT65EDQ and iOptron ZEQ25 mount but never used it due to bad weather around […]

Feb 08

by Amit Kamble in Astrophotography 0 comments tags: astrophotography, Deep Sky, Lagoon Nebula, photoshop, processing, Trifid Nebula

Lagoon and Trifid Nebula Processing Workflow using Photoshop CC HD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjMMyVvSz1s?html5=1 Members of the facebook group “Indian Amateur Astrophotographer ” upload one RAW image to be processed by other members. This helps everyone learn and share the art of processing astro images. This is my small contribution to the group on how i processed this particular image of the Lagoon and Trifid nebula using Photoshop CC. The above image was taken by Subhankar Saha, Renganathan Venketesan and Dr. Suresh Mohan on a hot summer night from Yelagiri. The night temp was 29c on may 30th and they forgot finder scope, after some gimmicks they got a star centred and did the GOTO. This is 2 hr exposure from yelagiri at ISO 800x 10 minutes. The image was shot using Canon 500D modified, Takahashi FSQ85 at f 5.3. I’ve used basic curves and level adjustment along with some masking techniques, colour balance and camera raw filter. Click here for a full res image Here is a before and after comparison. Before is the RAW stacked image and later is the processed version. This shows that when you stack images and end up with a dark dull image, do not be disappointed. The image data is all there it’s a matter of […]